


if I could hold you

by nouiiam



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Tumblr, M/M, Ordinary!Louis, Tumblr, but not really, famous!harry, its a pr thing, kinda lirry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-09
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-06 12:35:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 49,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1106884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nouiiam/pseuds/nouiiam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis isn't a fan of popstars. Unless the popstar has curly hair, green eyes, and is named Harry Styles. He really likes that popstar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> so, i had this idea in my head and i couldnt really find any tumblr fics, so i made my own? it's a bit short, only a little over three thousand words, but im hoping the future chapters will be longer:)

He blames Lottie.  
  
He blames her and her stupid music, and her stupid posters, and how she stupidly blasts the stupid cd in the car when she's with him. It's just really stupid. And he's stupid for enjoying it.  
  
He's stupid for enjoying...well... _Harry Styles._  
  
He had never heard the name before his sister told him. The popstar had followed her on twitter and she wouldn't stop talking about him all day. Or maybe it was the entire week; Louis really didn't keep track of the week his like was ruined by a flawless, curly haired idiot.  
  
So maybe he asked her to play him a song, and maybe he asked her to borrow the album, but she agreed to these things, therefore it's Lottie's fault.  
  
The thing about Harry Styles was that he was a natural popstar and Louis wanted to die because of it. Louis didn't even like pop music, yet somehow, this Harry Styles bloke charmed him into downloading all of his albums and spending his days watching any interviews he could find. He was a grown man for godsake and here he was giggling like a teenage girl because Harry tweeted something about goddamn bananas. He doesn't even fucking like bananas.  
  
He comes to terms with his love for Harry Styles after about one month. He hides it from his mates for a few weeks, but then Niall finds the cds hidden in Louis's nightstand and Louis realizes exactly how pathetic his life has become.  
  
"Mate, what the hell are you doing with Lottie's cds?" Niall asks, picking up Harry's newest album and looking over it. Louis looks up from his bed, tensing when he sees the cd in Niall's hand. He plays it off, shrugging nonchalantly and looking back to his laptop screen. He's silently hoping Niall will leave the subject alone and put the cd back.  
  
But of course it's Niall and he's far too curious to leave it.  
  
"Did Lottie leave them here?" He presses, now looking at Louis with a confused expression. Louis sighs, facing Niall and giving him a look that could wilt the prettiest of flowers.  
  
"Yes. Can we leave it now?" Louis pouts, as if it'll influence Niall's decision to ending the conversation.  
  
Instead, Niall clicks his tongue and grabs another cd. "These all say LWT on them? Isn't Lottie's middle name Elizabeth?" He notices, cocking an eyebrow at Louis and waiting for an explanation. Louis clears his throat, attempting to buy time so he can think of a logical answer for everything. "Are these your cds? You like Harry Styles?"  
  
Louis stays completely silent, hoping that maybe he'd completely disappear and it'd be as if this conversation never even happened. But of course, it's Niall he's speaking to, and Niall is always oblivious to when Louis doesn't feel like touching on a certain subject.  
  
"Louis?" Niall says. Louis groans in annoyance (one he only seems to use when Niall is around), making eye contact with Niall.  
  
"Yes, they're mine. Happy? Now leave alone you complete wanker." Louis rolls his eyes and returns to his laptop screen, still attempting to sign up from the stupid website Lottie had shown him, tumblr.  
  
He had never heard of it before, but then again, he had also never heard of Harry Styles before and look where that's got him.  
  
Niall mumbles something that Louis really doesn't care for, and it's probably along the lines of "what the hell is wrong with you". Louis doesn't exactly know the answer to that yet.  
  
He finishes signing up for the website (choosing the url doncastyles, because while being in love with Harry Styles is fun, he's still a twenty two year old lad who needs somewhat of a life), but is met with a new challenge when he sees what's called a dashboard. It's got some weird pictures on it and he's not sure why Lottie was so hell-bent on Louis making an account.  
  
"Are you going to sit on the computer the entire time?" Niall puts the cds back where they were, getting on the bed and lying down next to Louis. It wasn't unusual for Louis to be ignoring Niall most of the time, but it was usually because Louis was doing something productive. When Louis had free time, they were either walking about London or Niall was forcing Louis to help him pick up girls.  
  
"You can leave if you want." Louis says, grabbing his phone and texting Lottie on what he was supposed too do after he signed up for the website.  
  
"Lou." Niall whines, leaning onto Louis shoulder. "C'mon man. Twitter can wait. I can't." Louis scoffs, flicking the side of Niall's head.  
  
"It's tumblr, and I'm not feeling social today. Next time Ni, I swear." Louis promises, making puppy eyes and pouting his lip. He could be cute and innocent when it came to his advantage, honestly.  
  
Niall sighed, getting off the bed and grabbing his phone off of Louis's night stand. "Fine then. We still on for Saturday?" Louis nods absentmindedly, still paying absolutely no attention to Niall whatsoever. "See ya, Lou." Niall waves, leaving without any sort of reaction from Louis.  
  
Louis's eyes are glued to the screen until his phones goes off with a text from Lottie, He grabs it quickly, sliding the screen open and reading it.  
  
 _'get a theme you idiot'_  
  
He glares at the screen for a minute, waiting patiently for it to spontaneously combust into flames or something along those lines. He's disappointed when it does nothing but fade and then lock itself. He unlocks it, sending what he considers to be a witty and sarcastic reply, and then turning to Google to learn what the hell Lottie even means. She can't just tell him these things as if he's going to actually understand what she means on the first try.  
  
He hurriedly discovers what a theme is and where to get one. He finds the coding, sets up the rest of his blog and resumes to being unsure of what to do next.  
  
Rather than logging off out of frustration, he texts Lottie again and she tells him to follow blogs. She gives him a list of blogs that she considers 'follow-worthy' and he follows each and every one of them. His dashboard becomes a lot more lively afterwards, and he can finally see what the big deal was.

* * *

Louis gains over five thousand followers in three weeks. He's not exactly sure why (Lottie says it's because he's a twink, whatever that means), but he believes it has something to do with all of the dim-witted text post he makes about Harry. He gets deemed as 'tumblr famous', and while he's not certain what that means, he's honored and accepts the title anyways.  
  
He makes friends on the site easily, learning that he's not the only one on the site that has the uncontrollable ability to respond to everything in an extremely sarcastic manner. It makes him feel better whenever he accidentally responds to an anon rudely.  
  
'have you heard harry's new single???'  
  
Someone asks and Louis has the most offended expression because of course he's heard Harry's new single. He was up until two learning the lyrics, which is ironic, considering he was also up at two am re-evaluating all of his life choices.  
  
 _'are you really asking me that? are you really doubting my love for harry styles and his music? but yeah, ive heard the single.'_  
  
He presses answer and decides to shut his laptop off and get reading for work. He had already been told off the past two days for being late and he refuses to give his co-worker, Nick, the satisfaction of him being yelled at for a third time.

* * *

 "Ooh, so close Tommo." Nick taunts as Louis jogs in through the doors of Toys R Us. "Late date with Harry Styles?"

Louis rolls his eyes, shoving straight past Nick and to the break room to change into his uniform. He hated how Nick had found out about his tumblr. He was careful about it, and then Nick happens to snatch his phone one day and there went that secret.  
  
He quickly changes, exiting out of the room and back to Nick's general area of the store. As much as the lad irritated him, he still made Louis's day entertaining. That is, when Nick wasn't constantly asking him on a date.  
  
"So Lou, since this whole, Harry Styles fantasy isn't gonna happen soon..." Nick starts, and Louis is about ready to turn around and walk in the other direction. But the rest of his co-workers were obnoxious teenagers and he would rather deal with Nick than them.  
  
"No." Louis says, and Nick groans.  
  
"Right then, we get Harry's new cd next week." Nick tells him, and suddenly Louis is much more interested in what he has to say. "There's probably going to be a load of giggling teenage girls here. I'm sure you work on that day and there's no one here that hates teenager girls as much as you do." Louis grimaces, knowing the amount of annoyance he would end up leaving work with that day. Sure, the girls on tumblr were cool, but a lot of them were his age. And even the younger ones weren't as immature as the girls he sees in the store every time some pop artist released a cd.  
  
"What are you getting at, Grimshaw?" Louis asks, knowing there had to be some reason that Nick was bringing this entire thing up. Louis had worked on cd release days, dvd release days, and a load of other release days where the store was packed, Nick's never said anything before.  
  
Nick smiles, wrapping an arm around Louis's waist. Louis's taken by surprise, immediately pushing Nick away and narrowing is eyes at the bloke. "I'm saying, that maybe someone would be willing to switch with you that day....for something in return. And maybe they'll even grab the album for you."  
  
Louis chokes out a laugh. "Are you bribing me for a date?" Louis asks, an amused expression washing over his face. "Are you that desperate to get laid?"  
  
Nick gives an incredulous look, crossing his arms. "It's a yes or a no, Louis." He says, rolling his eyes. Louis refrains from any other rude phrases, crossing his arms and holding back a smile.  
  
"Will you stop asking me out if I say yes?"  
  
"Perhaps."  
  
Louis purses his lips, then sighs. "Fine. I'll go on a date with you. But I'm expecting that cd as soon as I walk into work the day after." Nick smirks and Louis knows that he's even going to hear the end of this from not only Nick, but Niall as well.

"Pathetic." He mutters, but he's not sure if he means Nick or himself.

* * *

 The first thing Louis does when he gets home is get on tumblr and complain. It’s ten thirty at night and he's still having a hard time believing that he had agreed to a date with Nick. The things he does for Harry Styles.

  
 _'i agreed to a date just so they'd switch work shifts and buy me Harry's new album...does that technically make me a prostitute?'_  
  
He clicks posts and begins scrolling through his dashboard, reblogging pictures he had seen numerous times before, but is too far into his sulking mood to care.  
  
After half an hour of mindlessly scrolling, he goes to answer a few questions in his ask, hoping it'll take his mind off of what happened at work.  
  
It's the usual - anons asking about all of Harry's scandals and gossip. He answers a couple of those in his usual tendency, then comes across an unexpected message from a blog he's never seen before.  
  
 _'Hey, one of your posts came up on my dash and you seem really funny, ha. I'm not really into pop music, but I like your blog.' - **sleepingalone**_  
  
Louis smirks as he reads the last line of the message. He wants to respond with some snarky comment on how this person's url is a lyric from one of Harry's songs, but he decides to be polite for a change.  
  
 _'hm, what post could i possibly make so funny that it overthrows my love for harry styles?' -_ **doncastyles**  
  
He clicks answer privately and then types in the person's url into the navigation bar. He laughs to himself when it loads, taking note that this was obviously a hipster blog.  
  
He hovers over the follow button for a couple of seconds, clicking follow then reverting back to his dashboard to see if the person had replied.  
  
 _'hi Louis:) M'Harry. and it was the post about your mate Niall getting rejected 6 times while he was drunk.' -_ **sleepingalone**  
  
Louis smiles as he reads the message, remembering the post clearly. Niall had asked out the same girl at a club six times thinking she was a different person each time.  
  
 _'ahhhh, yes. that one's a favourite. and I will totally not bring up how you have the same name as Harry Styles. nice blog, by the way' –_ **doncastyles**

The response comes only a couple of minutes after Louis sent his. Louis eagerly clicks on the inbox button, reading the message quickly and thinking up a response.

_‘I’ve been told that before, ha. the harry styles thing. not very often I get my blog complimented by a fandom blog.’ – **sleepingalone**_

_‘well, not very often I get messaged by a hipster blog. theres a first for everything’ – **doncastyles**_

He stays on his inbox, refreshing the page every two or so minutes after he replies to each of Harry’s messages. This happens until about twenty minutes to midnight, when Louis forces himself to go take a shower and go to bed early for once. Staying up until five o’clock in the morning isn’t good for you, he’s learned.

_‘im off to bed, maybe. talk to you tomorrow?’ – **doncastyles**_

He presses answer privately for the last time that night, shutting off his laptop and heading into the bathroom for his much needed shower.

* * *

 _'_ _right then, goodnight louis!’ – **sleepingalone**_

Harry swiftly clicked the answer privately button, pressing the home button and scrolling through his dash again.

“Harry, are you even listening to what I’m saying?” He flinched, grabbing his phone off of his nightstand. He had completely forgotten that he was on the phone with his manager. This Louis lad was distracting. Or maybe it was just Harry.“Yeah, yeah Zayn. Interview, tomorrow at nine, then LA?” He answers, placing his phone on the pillow next to him.

“LA is Sunday, mate. You’ve gotta promote your new album in the states. C’mon Haz, keep up.” Zayn says, clicking his tongue.

Harry sighs, closing his laptop and standing up from the bed. He grabs his phone, walking out of his bedroom and downstairs to the kitchen. “Right. When do I come back to London?” He asks, setting his phone on the counter and opening the fridge.

“The week after. Before then, you've got a few interviews, live performances, a fake date or two…” Zayn trails off, but it grabs Harry’s attention faster than the information that came before.

“With _who_? If it’s Taylor Swift again, I will quit the music business.” Harry threatens, taking out a bowl of left over spaghetti. Everytime he had to go to the states for promo, it ended up being the start of a relationship he had no idea about. With his last album, he had “dated” Taylor Swift for a few months, and that was, hands down, the most terrifying experience of his life. And he’s been mobbed by fans plenty of times.

Zayn laughed over the phone and Harry rolled his eyes, putting the spaghetti in the microwave and leaning on the counter. “It’s not Taylor Swift. I’m not sure who it is, management hasn’t given me all the details yet.”

“You’re my manager for a reason, Zayn. You’re supposed to know these things.” Harry teases, taking his food out from the microwave. “But fine. These pr relationships get boring after a while, you know.”

“I know, Harry. Look, I’m pushing for management to let you come out, even explained why it’d benefit them. Nothing so far, but I’ll keep trying.” Harry scoffs. “I’ll let you get back to whatever you’re doing at midnight. Just be ready by eight, alright?”

“Yeah. G’night Zayn” Zayn hurriedly says goodnight, then hangs up the phone with a click.

Harry sighs, glancing down at his bowl of spaghetti and grimacing. He dumps the rest of it in the trash, dropping the bowl in the sink, grabbing and making his way back upstairs.

* * *

Harry anxiously shook his leg, biting his lip as his management team made the final decisions on his new pr relationship. At any moment now, Zayn would come and get Harry to tell him who he'd be dating and have him sign the new contract. Harry wasn't exactly thrilled, but there wasn't much he could do about it.

A few minutes later, the door to the meeting room opened, revealing Zayn, who had a slight smile on his face. Harry raised an eyebrow, confused. He stood up anyways, following Zayn back into the meeting room and taking a seat. 

"Harry, we're sure Mr. Malik has told you our plans for while you're in Los Angeles." One of the men, Will, Harry thinks, says. Harry nods, glancing between him and Zayn, who has a supportive grin plastered on his face. "Mr. Malik has been urging the idea of you coming out to the media, and we believe that it may have a positive impact." 

Harry sat up straight, suddenly much more interested in the conversation. "Wait, what?" He asks, furrowing his eyebrows. Zayn had never mentioned any of this. 

A woman stepped up, and Harry's not sure if he's ever seen her before. "Seeing as many other performers have recieved a positive outcome from their decision to come out, we see no reason why it wouldn't have the same effect on you." She tells him, and Harry can tell how fake her enthusiam is right away.

"I-I don't-wow." Harry stumbles over his words, still attempting to process what was being said to him. He took a deep breath, sitting back and clearing his throat. "But what does that mean? Who am I dating?"

"A new singer named Liam. Liam Payne." Zayn tells him, handing him an ipad with Liam's information on it. Harry's heard of him before, straight off the X-Factor, like himself. "Since you both have the same management team, it makes things easier." Zayn rolls his eyes, crossing his arms. "He'll be in LA doing promo for his first album. You'll meet him there and go on a few dates."

"So no girls?" Harry says after a minute of reading a bit about Liam. He had to admit, the guy was attractive. 

Zayn shakes his head, grabbing the ipad back from Harry. Will slides Harry a contract, along with a pen, and smiles. "We just need you to sign in a few places and you'll be on your way." Harry smirks, grabbing the pen and signing where it says for him to sign. The woman takes the paper, smiling warmly at Harry. Harry looks away from her, turning to Zayn again.

"Are we done here?" Zayn asks, standing up from his chair. Will nods, placing the contract in a folder. Harry stands up as well, giving a small wave and following Zayn out of the room without another word.

* * *

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis isn't a fan of popstars. Unless the popstar has curly hair, green eyes, and is named Harry Styles. He really likes that popstar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> grrrrrr, only a bit over 3000 words again:///, i tried. but i hope this chapter is up to par:)

_'so louis, where are you from?'-sleepingalone_

Harry clicks send, smiling to himself and ignoring his phone calls and text messages from Zayn. He last couple of days of freedom were coming to an end, and soon he'd have to go out and be seen with Liam. He hadn't even met the lad yet, their management team didn't want them to meet before their appearances. He's not sure why a stupid decision was made, but he's learned that complaining doesn't make a difference so he just goes along with it.

After the fifth ring from his phone, he grabs it, sliding the screen and answering the call. "Look, Harry, I know you'd rather stay in the hotel and do whatever it is you spend your time doing, but Liam is waiting at the Starbucks across the street." Zayn tells him and Harry feels bad for a minute. "I've met with him already, he's a cool lad."

Harry sighs, biting his lip in frustration. His will power lets up, and he gets out of the bed, forgetting to check his inbox and pulling out his suitcase from under the bed. "Fine, I'm getting dressed now. Tell Liam I'll be there in ten." He says, hanging up the phone before Zayn can reply. He pulls out a plain black t-shirt and a pair of his ripped skinny jeans and decides that there's no reason to try harder than that.

He sets his clothes on the bed, taking a look at his laptop and seeing a message notification. He smirks slightly, clicking on the inbox button and reading the response from Louis.

_'_ _why? planning on finding and murdering me? but fine, i'll take my chances. i'm from england. doncaster if you really wanna track me down'-doncastyles_

Harry let out a chuckle, typing out a quick reply and ignoring the fact they was supposed to be getting ready for his "date" with Liam. He was probably going to get yelled at by Zayn for being late, but this Louis lad was worth it. For the past few days they had been talking, it always ended in fits of laughter and Harry almost forgetting the entire situation he was in. The only other time things were like that was when he was home with his mum or sister, or sometimes when he was hanging out with Zayn as friends and not just as a manager and his act.

_'you've found me out. im definitely going to murder you. but just incase you wanna go for it first, im from england too:) i live in london' -sleepingalone_

He sends it and forces himself to shut his laptop and put it away. He briskly got dressed, not wanting to make a bad first impression on Liam (or maybe he just didn't want an article on how he was careless with dates). He fixed his hair to the best of his ability, then pulled on his boots and tugged a jacket over his shirt. Grabbing is phone and his hotel room key, he exits his room, makes his way out of the hotel to meet Liam.

* * *

_'ooh, a london lad. i've heard theyre much more hipster than the rest of england.'-doncastyles_

Louis clicks send and smirks to himself, but his clever feeling is only there for a moment before he realizes what day it was.

The past three days for Louis consisted of blogging and avoiding Nick Grimshaw as much as possible. It's not hard, seeing as he doesn't have any shifts with him that week, but then again, that won't excuse Nick from showing up at work with some stupid excuse that only a three year old would believe. It's happened numerous of times before and Louis still gets second hand embarrassment thinking about it. 

Not to mention the whole "avoiding" thing is difficult when Nick has Louis's number and every time Louis thinks he has a notification from tumblr or a message from Lottie, it ends up being Nick and Louis's almost broken his phone from throwing it in frustration. He regrets ever saying yes to that dreaded date. He could have just bought the album on his own and called out of work sick, but apparently he wasn't thinking that day.

_'how does one get out of a date without the use of murder or moving out of the country and changing their name to john?'_

He clicks post then lays back in his bed, shutting his eyes and attempting to avoid all responsibilities he has that date. Honestly, the only thing for him to do is getting ready for his date, but procrastination is his best friend. He stays still for a few seconds, then sighs and sits up again. He's got a few responses to his post, but it's the response from Harry that gets his attention.

_'i've told a girl i was gay once to get out of a date. it turned out being true years late (well, kinda), but you get the point'-sleepingalone_

Louis laughs, rolling his eyes and clicking the reply button.

_'that'd be a great solution, but you've obviously never explored my blog. im as queer as they come. try again'-doncastyles_

After those couple of messages, he ends up spending another fifteen minutes talking to Harry. It was as if Harry was the only person he really talked to on tumblr now, not that he didn't talk to his other friends, he just seemed to have more in common with Harry. They both lived in England, they listened to the same type of music (excluding Louis's obsession over Harry Styles, but even this Harry's said he's enjoyed some of his songs), they're roughly the same age, and their sense of humor was similar. Harry was pretty comical for a hipster blog.

_'i should really get ready for my date.'_

Louis hovered over the send button, biting his lip and making a last minute addition to the reply.

_'i should really get ready for my date...do you think i could have your number? only to keep me sane during the entire thing? the date isn't anything special, we're going to get coffee and then bowling. i dont know, he came up with it. im just going for the love of pop music and the hatred of teenage girls.' -doncastyles_

He presses send before he can delete any of it, then refreshes the inbox every few seconds for a reply. It's not until five minutes go by without a response that he shuts down his laptop and thinks over all of the things Harry could be thinking about him at the moment. He's asked people for their numbers on tumblr before, sure, but usually after a month or two, not three or four days.

Louis groans in frustration, getting off of his bed and going to his closet to choose an outfit. He grabs his white _Marvel_ t-shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans. He quickly pulled on his t-shirt and his jeans, then went to tackle his pile of shoes. Normally he would go with his vans, but seeing as he was going to have to take his shoes off anyways, he grabbed an old pair of TOMS instead, slipping them on easily.

He gave himself a quick once over in his mirror, then smiled contently and sat back on his bed as he waited for Nick to arrive. He still had another ten or twenty minutes until then, which in his mind meant, _ten or twenty minutes for tumblr_.

He opened his laptop again, perking up as he saw a twenty notification next to the inbox symbol. He bit his lip as he opened it, hoping that at least one of them were from Harry. The one at the very top was, and he had half a mind to not go and read all the others in his inbox. He decided to read and reply to the one from Harry, then look through the others when he was finished.

_'sorry it took so long to respond, you're not the only one with a date today:) but yeah, you can totally have my number. its 01632 960446. you swear you're not gonna sign me up for like, porn or some stupid sex chat, right? because as entertaining as that'd be, i'd probably get in trouble with my mate for it.' -sleepingalone_

Louis scoffs, entering Harry's number in his phone before sending Harry a message.

_'now as tempting as it was to sign you up for porn, I held back because im a nice person. But if you were hoping for me to do it, i'm not exactly the best at sexting, but you never know if you dont try -Louis'_

He sets his phone off to the side, waiting for it to go off with the message notification. As he waits for Harry to reply, he checks his other messages, wondering what's got everyone in his inbox so excited.

_'LOUIS!!!!!!! HARRY WAS SEEN OUT ON A DATE!!!'_

He rolls his eyes, deleting that one and moving onto the others. Harry was always linked to girls, this time was probably the same as all of the others. It was as if it were an annual thing for Harry to be seen in public with another girl, Louis had found out, and apparently, everyone was getting tired of it.

_'louis, have you seen the pictures of harry on his date??? it's completely unexpected, to be honest.'_

He raises an eyebrow, puzzled with why this date seemed to be such a big deal to everybody. He deletes that one as well and continues on through his message, deleting which ever ones he saw the word date in. He had gotten to the point where he didn't even read the entire message. If it contained the words _Harry_ and _date_ , he would automatically delete it and skim the next message. Which of course, went on until he saw one with the words _Harry_ and _Liam_. He really hadn't expected such a change in events.

_'Harry's out with that xfactor guy, Liam?? we're not sure if it's a thing, but idk, they were smiling and laughing and holding hands and stuff.'_

He lets go of his mouse, about to answer the ask when he hears a knock on his front door. Louis sighs in annoyance, turning his laptop of and standing up from his bed. He picks up his phone, having yet to see a message from his Harry, but excuses it since Harry is probably occupied on his own date (which Louis is envious of the fact that it's probably with someone Harry actuallly _likes_ being around.)

After a second thought and another knock on the door, Louis finally leaves the comfort of his bedroom (not before another glance in the mirror, because who gives a shit if it's _Nick_ , he's still gotta look good), and stands in front of his front door, hesitating to grab the handle and open the door.

It takes him a couple of seconds, be he eventually finds the courage to open the door and face a night with one of the people he hated being around for long periods of time.

Him and Nick stand at the doorway, staring at each other in utter silence until Nick opens his mouth to say something, “You look good, Tomlinson. Better than usual.”

Louis rolls his eyes, shoving his phone in his back pocket. “Yeah yeah, thanks. You look fine, are we gonna go?” Louis rushes, exiting his flat and locking the door behind him.

* * *

 

Harry smiles weakly at Liam, hand shaking in his pocket as he listens to him speak about his love of comic books. Harry feels as if he's speaking to Zayn, and if he hadn't just met Liam, he'd probably tell him to shove a dick down his throat, but he's learned that you don't do that to people you've just met, especially nice ones that are nothing but kind and have a strange obsession with being the next Christian Bale.

“I've loved them since I was a kid, honestly. I've got a bunch of t-shirts and stuff, hats too.” Liam explains, and Harry can't help but admire the way Liam gets so passionate about the subject. “I'm not talking too much, am I?” He asks, and Harry immediately wants to punch himself in the face for not listening to half of what Liam was saying.

“No, no, you're fine.” He tells him, and all he wants to do is sneak off and text Louis back. It's been about ten minutes since he received the initial text from the Donny lad, and he felt bad for not being able to reply as quickly as he wanted to. Louis was probably dying of boredom on his date and here Harry was, talking to this guy about _Batman._

“You sure? You seem quite distracted, I mean, I don't mean to be intrusive or whatever, but I don't know, you're a bit space-y, you know?” Liam blabbers and once again, Harry feels like a complete dick for not listening to him.

Harry shakes his head and laughs. “M'fine, promise. Just forgot to text someone back, but it'll be fine.” He admits, ignoring the guilty feeling and taking his hand out of the pocket with his phone. Louis should be fine for the next ten or so minutes, right? He didn't seem _that_ urgent for Harry to text him.

“Oh, do you need to get that? I don't mind. It's not like it's an actual date or anything.” Liam says. Harry bites his lip, fighting the urge to take out his phone and ignore Liam for the rest of the date. He smiles again and sighs.

“No, it's fine. Gotta keep up the act for the camera, right?” Harry jokes, and he's gotten a laugh out of Liam as well. “So, you're from Wolverhampton? What's it like, I've heard it's very proper.” Harry asks, applauding himself silently for not taking the advantaged to text Louis in plain sight. Who knows what kind of headlines that would've made.

Liam shrugs. “I guess, not as proper as everyone makes it seem. Or maybe it was just the fact that my friends and I weren't exactly proper.” Liam smirks and Harry's relieved that he has somewhat of a mischievous side to him. He wouldn't be able to handle this pr relationship with Liam being a saint the majority of the time.

* * *

 

Louis watched as his ball rolled in the center, then slowly began rolling to the left and missing all ten pins. He huffs, crossing his arms and going to sit back down. He's forgotten how much he hated bowling.

“I should've picked the date.” Louis mutters, glaring as Nick got yet another strike. Nick turns and smirks.

“There's always next time.” Louis forces out a laugh and shakes his head.

“You're absolutely mad if you think there's gonna be a next time.” He says. He was still waiting for his phone off with a text from Harry, hopefully responding with something that could entertain him more than this date was. “This was a one time thing and it will not being happening again.”

Nick rolls his eyes, stepping away from the lane for Louis to take his turn. ”You're up.” Louis sighs, standing up and walking in front of the lane. He grabs his ball, narrowing his eyes and focusing on the middle of the lane. “Do you need help, Louis?” Nick asks, stepping behind Louis. Louis groans in frustration, turning around and giving Nick the most annoyed stare he could muster up.

“This is not Ghost and you are not going to put your hands anywhere near my hips.”Louis answers, wanting this game to end as fast as possible so he could hurry up and go home. Alright sure, he did feel _slightly_ bad for treating Nick rudely, but he was on this date against his will (maybe he willingly said yes, but Nick shouldn't have offered to buy him the album. It was completely unfair.) and he was determined to let Nick know how absolutely miserable he was.

“Just trying to help.”

“If I'm going to lose, I am going to lose without your help, thank you.” Louis spun back around, aiming his ball for the middle of the lane once again. He held the ball back, about to roll it, when his phone went off with the text message tone. He rolled the ball carelessly, not caring what pins it ended up hitting. It began to roll very slowly, considering how Louis basically just dropped it and didn't even provide any force.

He took his phone out of his pocket, grinning when he saw it was from his Harry.

' _how are you holding up? I just got back from my date, so i'm all yours. and not entirely sure on sexting while you're on your date. might give the guy the wrong idea-Harry'_

Louis chuckles, typing out a message and completely disregarding the fact that he was supposed to be on date with Nick.

_'im losing and he was attempting to touch me. The things I go through for harry styles is amazing, I cant believe i've made it this far in this date without taking one of the bowling balls and throwing it towards his head. Dammit, that was probably gonna be the highlight of my night-Louis'_

He hears the sound of pins falling and instantly looks up, seeing that not only had the ball finally hit the pins, but he also got a _strike._

“How did you manage that?” Nick asks, standing beside Louis with a look of approval. “You've gone the entire game without hitting so much as one pin. You get a magic text message and suddenly you're a pro. Strange one you are, Tomlinson.”

Louis smirks, tapping send on his phone and shoving it back in his pocket. He looks up at the scoreboard, seeing the disappointing score. He rolls his eyes, glad that the game was finally over and he could go home.

“Who was that text from, anyways?”

Louis shakes his head, walking away from Nick and grabbing his jacket off of the chair. As if he would tell Nick about the guy he met on tumblr. Knowing him, he'd probably laugh and tease Louis everyday they worked together.

“A friend.” Louis says simply, pulling on his jacket. “Now, are you gonna take me home?” He arches an eyebrow, waiting to leave. His phone goes off again before Nick can answer. He immediately reaches for it, but Nick grabs his arm gently before he has the chance to take it out of his pocket.

“You've been attached to that thing the entire night. Not even texting, just staring at it. Do you have a boyfriend? Is that why you always say no to dates with me?” Nick questions. “All you had to do was tell me. Would've been better than having me seem like a complete idiot.”

“What? No, I don't have a boyfriend.” Louis answers, amused. “And if you haven't noticed, I'm simply _not_ interested in you. At all. I told you I said yes to this date so you would stop asking me and so you'd get me Harry's stupid album, which I don't even care about anymore, I'll get it myself.” He adds, not sure if he should be entertained or annoyed at Nick's ignorance. He's gonna go with annoyed. “If you're not gonna take me home, I'll just take the tube.”

Louis pulls his arm away from Nick, taking his phone out and heading towards the bowling alley's exit. “I'll see you at work tomorrow.” Louis tells him, giving a sarcastic smile and walking out the doors.

-


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis isn't a fan of popstars. Unless the popstar has curly hair, green eyes, and is named Harry Styles. He really likes that popstar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'd like to thank brittany for harassing me to write. but this is about 1000 words longer than usual, so there's that. I hope this chapter pleases you:)

The next day for Louis is both stressful and exciting, exciting being the superior feeling as he scrolls through his dashboard before work. He's learned that going on tumblr blocks out all and any thoughts of yesterday's date with Nick and how terribly it had gone. Unfortunately, he had to work a shift with him today and as confident he had seem last night, he was nervous for what a day at work would have in store for him.  
  
His phone goes off with his text tone for Harry and he grabs it off his nightstand, maybe a bit too quickly. He opens the message, reading through quickly before chuckling softly.  
  
' _okay, so i figured, if he says something about the date, just act really confused and make him think it was all a dream._ ' _-Harry_  
  
Louis shakes his head as he types, looking up every few words to see his any updates on Harry Styles and this Liam Payne guy he's being seen with. The pictures of them from yesterday were cluttering his dashboard and he needed to catch up with the events. Of course his date had to be the same day as Harry's.  
  
 _'i was gonna ignore him, but that works too. hey, i know you dont like pop, but have you seen the thing with harry styles and liam payne?' -Louis_  
  
He sends the message, setting his phone to the side and scrolling back through his dash. He feels as if he's over analyzing every pictures, looking over Harry's emotions in each picture. He can't help but feel like Harry seems...anxious. He seems tense, but Louis's not sure if that's because he's accustomed to finding things wrong with Harry's dates, or if he's just getting jealous.  
  
His phone beeps again and he grabs it immediately, on instinct. He pauses for a moment, questioning how excited he gets when his Harry texts him. He doesn't even grab his phone that fast for Lottie and Niall, honestly. He brushes it off, viewing the message.  
  
' _oh definitely. its all anyone around me is talking about, to be honest. apparently no one expected it, i dont see why. he showed it quite a bit, to be honest. was he trying very hard to be straight?_ '' _-Harry_  
  
Louis laughs out loud, covering his mouth. Even a hipster blogger noticed it, one that doesn't even like Harry Styles to begin with. It's all Louis's been saying since he first joined the fandom, and now his suspicions had been confirmed.  
  
 _'thats what i said ! my sister is going to have a proper fit, im sure. me, on the other hand, this seems to be my shining moment. i will drive to london when he gets back and seduce him' -Louis_  
  
There's a knock on his door as soon as he hits send and he almost drops his phone in shock. Niall hadn't told him he was coming over and he doesn't remember inviting Lottie that day. He was also certain that he had paid his rent on time, therefore being no reason for his landlord to harass him.  
  
He reluctantly gets up from his bed, prepared to curse out whoever was disturbing him from his final peaceful moments before he had to deal with first date backlash.  
  
He debates whether or not he should put on a shirt, but decides against it seeing as that's far too much effort for whoever is standing behind the door.  
  
Louis slowly walks to his front door, opening it and instantly regretting his decision to not put a shirt on. Nick is on the other side, a bag in his and an slight smile on his face. Louis looks at him in disbelief, prepared to close the door and retreat back to the comfort of his bedroom.  
  
Instead he narrows his eyes skeptically, moving to the side and letting Nick in. He shuts the door after him, still leaning against the door, not sure if he should follow or run into his and call the police.  
  
He chooses the latter, entering the living room area where Nick had obviously made himself at home.  
  
"Why are you here." Louis blurts, and it comes out more as a statement than a question. He had another five hours until he had to deal with Nick, but now that time had been shortened in a matter minutes. This is exactly why he should never get out of bed before three pm.  
  
Nick holds out the bag, taking Louis by surprise. He grabs it, staring at it as if it were going to explode in his face at any given moment.  
  
It doesn't though, so Louis continues to opening it, widening his eyes when he sees Harry's album. "I told you that you didn't have to get it." That's all he ends up saying. He should probably fit a thank you in there.  
  
"You went on the date though. It wasn't the most pleasant date, but you went along with it." Nick tells and Louis thinks he might feel bad for a moment. Or maybe it's just excitement from having Harry's new album. Both, both is good.  
  
Louis purses his lips, setting the album down on the coffee table and sitting down next to Nick. "Thanks. Look, I was horrible to you yesterday," He says, tempted to bite his tongue to prevent him from what he was going to say next. "How's this, I'll go another date with you. But, I choose the date. Deal?"  
  
He can hear his phone beeping multiple times from his bedroom, but he resists the urge to go and retrieve it. Harry's probably blowing up his phone, wondering where he had gone, or if he had been murdered.  
  
He ignores it for the time being, focusing back on Nick. "Yes or No? This is a one time thing, you say no now then its no forever."  
  
Nick nods and Louis has to force himself from making a snide comment about how desperate he was. "Yeah, sure. When?"  
  
Louis waves him off, standing up, grabbing the album and heading off towards his room. "I'll tell you later. As for now, I'm gonna need you to leave. I've still got four and a half hours until I've got to see your face again, and I'm going to enjoy it."

* * *

  
 _  
_ _'Im sure your plan to seduce harry styles will work effectively.'_ _  
  
_ _'except of course, he has a boyfriend'_  
  
Harry rolls his eyes after he sends those two messages, checking his other text message from Zayn about that day's pr stunt. He skims through it, not giving much interest. All he gathers is that he has to show up at Liam's hotel later that night (which he finds ridiculous, considering it's their "second date").  
  
He sends back a quick 'ok', then returns to his much more exciting conversation with Louis, only to see that Louis hasn't responded. He hesitates for a few seconds before sending a couple of more messages, just to make sure Louis had received a notification.  
  
 _'louis???'_ _  
  
_ _'did you die?'_  
  
Another few minutes go by with out a response from Louis, so Harry places his phone t the side and grabs his laptop, opening it and directing himself straight to tumblr. He absentmindedly scrolls for about ten minutes, then checks his phone for a text from Louis.

None.

He sighs, telling himself not to worry about it, Louis has other things to besides text an internet friend he met only a week ago. He places his phone on the nightstand, ignoring the urge to send another text.

A couple of minutes later, his phone goes off with the text tone and he hastily grabs for it, sliding the screen and frowning when he sees it's just a text from his sister.

_'H, saw the papers today! So glad things are working out!' -Gemma_

He smiles slightly, glad to see Gemma was still keeping up with him. They hadn't talked in a while and Harry never really went home to visit family often. He spent most of his free time in the states, only because it was calming and relaxing to not have people around you for a long. He made efforts to go back to Holmes Chapel every once in a while, mostly holidays and things like that. The important dates.

_'thanks gem:P how are things?' -Harry_

His phone buzzes as he types that message and he's overjoyed to see it was a reply from Louis. He almost forgets to tap send to Gemma, but he quickly goes back to her message window and does so, then goes back to Louis's to properly read the message.

_'I haven't died. I got the album I wanted from the guy from yesterday. and I may have another date with him. harry styles makes me do stupid things.' -Louis_

Harry laughs to himself, tempted to reveal who he was, but resists the urge and replies normally.

_'ive noticed. you can only blame a popstar for so long.' -Harry_

He puts his phone down, telling himself to wait at least a couple of minutes before replying to Louis's next next. He never even responds to _Zayn's_ texts that quickly, but then again, most of Zayn's texts had to do with or other things Harry really didn't care for. Louis was one of the most entertaining things that's happened to him since 2012, honestly.

He focuses back onto his laptop, which had been on his dashboard screen for the past ten minutes he was trying to reach Louis. He types in Louis's tumblr url in the web search bar, his face flushing red when he sees a picture of him and Liam on the first page.

He redirects himself to Louis's about me page, some place he had procrastinated looking over. He had meant to, he had just been distracted by work and Louis himself that he never had the time. He had a free day today, though, so why not stalk Louis's blog for the time being, or for as long as he can handle seeing his face multiple times. Going on Louis's blog was almost the same as looking in a mirror, but he'd deal with it, maybe.

His phone goes off three times, and he's assuming Gemma, Zayn and Louis have all texted him at the same time. He picks of his phone, opening the text from Zayn first and groaning when he finishes reading it.

_'mate, im coming up to your room now. thought we could chill? We havent hung out in a while.' -Zayn_

As much as he loves spending time with Zayn (when Zayn was being a _friend_ not a _manager_ ), he had things to do today. So maybe those things only included being on tumblr until he had to make his appearance outside of Liam's hotel, but those were important to him and there was no way Zayn would let him stay on the computer while he was there.

Like he wanted to, honestly. He had known Zayn for a long time, sure, but Zayn's manager mode sometimes came above friendship mode and Harry was certain he wouldn't exactly be pleased that he had a social network site that their management didn't know about.

It's not that Zayn was strict, no, he was carefree for the number of years Harry had known him. It was just that he was protective and he knew how Harry's management and PR team could be with things like that, and Harry having a tumblr without their knowledge was _technically_ against his contract. It wasn't like they'd ever find it, and if they did, they'd have no proof that it was actually Harry's. But Zayn would definitely be able to tell just by Harry's pictures and posts. It was the downside about having your best friend as your manager.

He ignores that message, waiting for Zayn to just get to his room. He skims over Louis's about me page quickly (after deciding to reply to the other messages after Zayn was there), hovering over Louis's face page and biting his lip. He wasn't sure if he had enough time to look through it and his theory proved correct when Zayn walked into his hotel room, waving and smiling. Harry curses under his breath, quickly closing all of his tabs and shutting his laptop. He hated that Zayn always had an extra key card to his hotel rooms.

“Harry! What's up bro?” Zayn greets, sitting next to Harry on the sofa and patting his leg. The musician scoffs, smacking Zayn's hand and reaching for the TV remote before Zayn could even make his move. Zayn smirks, flicking Harry's shoulder. “You know me all too well.”

“Yeah, well, that's what happens when we've been friends for, what, ten years almost?” Harry asks, turning on the television and flipping the channel to BBC America. He had met Zayn when he was in Year 5, Zayn being in Year 6. They had bonded over their mutual love of Music and Art Class. Of course, Harry was more into photography as they grew up and Zayn had been skilled in drawing. “You've used all of your tricks already, Malik.”

Zayn rolls his eyes, grabbing Harry's laptop from the lad's lap, opening it and opening a browser. “Hm, everything's closed. Is someone doing something they're not supposed to?” He raises an eyebrow suggestively and Harry can't help but laugh.

“Only in the privacy of my own home. Please Zayn, I have morals.” He teases, picking up his phone from beside him and opening the text from Gemma.

_'they're going great! i've met a guy, actually. We've been dating for about six months now!' -Gemma_

He smiles slightly, typing out a quick text and immediately switching to Louis's message window.

' _I will blame a popstar for as long as I please , thank you very much. Especially stupid ones with curly hair.' -Louis_

Harry laughs out loud, gaining Zayn's attention. “What's got you in tears?” He questions, peering over at Harry's phone. Harry is too distracted to realize Zayn's wandering eyes, and when he does it's too late and Zayn's already snatched his phone right out of his hands.

“Zayn!” He exclaims, reaching for his phone. Zayn holds it out of reach, scrolling through his texts with Louis, confused by each message being exchanged.

“Who's _Louis_? And why are you talking about yourself in third person-” He pauses, almost dropping Harry's phone from shock. He faces Harry, a slight smirk on his face. “This is a fan! And he doesn't even _know_ who you actually are! Harold Edward Styles, I can't believe this.”

Harry groans, standing up from the sofa and stepping in front of Zayn. “I don't have time for this, Zayn.” He says, holding his hand out for his phone. Zayn ignores him, continuing to read through the messages.

“He's planning to _seduce_ you. Jesus Harry, I never thought I'd see the day.” He hands back Harry's phone, a smirk still plastered on his face. “Is this how you pick up guys now? Pretending to not be yourself. I mean, mate, people usual do it the other way around, acting as if they're a celebrity when they're no-”

“Can you stop talking, now?” Harry takes his phone, sitting back down and texting Louis back.

' _I love how you show your affection by calling him stupid. Im sure he'd feel the love.' -Harry_

_'only for those I love most' -Louis_

Zayn chuckles, shaking his head and going back to using Harry's laptop. “Ridiculous. How did you even meet him? Do you even know if it's a _him_? What if it's a crazy teenage girl. She has your number now.”

“I-” Harry freezes, trying to figure out how to word his sentence without giving away the fact that he has a tumblr. “I went to check my tumblr tags, and I found his blog. And he is a boy, he's got an about me to prove it. He's twenty two and lives in Doncaster.” Harry says proudly, reciting the information he had read on Louis's blog.

Zayn purses his lips, shrugging. “Alright then, give me his tumblr or whatever.” Harry's too flustered to even correct him or make a joke about him not knowing what a url is.

“I can't remember it.” Harry blurts. He's still logged into his tumblr, meaning Zayn can find his tumblr page if he goes onto Louis's. “Sorry.”

“Ask him then.” Zayn nods towards Harry's phone, and Harry wants to jump out of the hotel balcony.

“It's doncastyles.” He mumbles, but loud enough so that Zayn can hear him. Zayn begins to type it in, causing Harry to flinch a little every time he presses a key. Zayn was possibly going to find out about his tumblr, and he'd be done. Well, not literally, but there would go his tumblr and everything he had on it. All of his photography, posts, followers, every single thing gone.

“He's proper obsessed for someone who's older than me, even. How do I find his about me?” Zayn squints at the screen, trailing the mouse around the screen. Harry sighs, grabbing his laptop from Zayn and clicking on Louis's name in his description.

He swiftly goes to click on Louis's face page, but then realizes even _he_ hasn't seen what Louis looks like yet. For all he knows, Louis could be another twelve year old girl that just seems older than she is. Zayn would never let him live that down.

“Are you gonna click it or not?” Zayn pesters, pressing the left click button and loading Louis's face page. Harry holds in a breath until the page finishes loading, relieved when he doesn't see a twelve year old girl's picture. He almost stops breathing, though, when he sees the first picture on the page.

Louis was funny, Harry knew that, but _god_ he was breathtaking as well. Harry wasn't sure which he wanted to look at first, Louis's caramel fringe (which he was wearing a beanie in the picture, and Harry was certain he was blushing), his bright blue eyes that crinkled when he smiled, and _fuck_ , his smile. Harry was certain the Louis's smile was the cause of sunshine and rainbows and all of the good things in the world and the sun was just taking credit for it.

He scrolls down, forgetting Zayn was right next to him, mesmerized by each of Louis's pictures. There were selfies with his mate Niall (Harry had to remember Niall, after all, he was the one to bring Harry to Louis in the first place) and photographs of him that his sister had taken, apparently. Those were the ones Harry would linger on for the longest, because _wow_ , Louis looks so good on camera.

“I think you're drooling, Haz.” Zayn jokes taking the laptop away from Harry and redirecting to twitter. “Hazza's got a crush!” Zayn sings, receiving a smack on the shoulder from Harry.

Harry sticks out his tongue, taking his phone and sending a simple message to Louis.

_'your face is lovely' -Harry_

 

* * *

 

Louis's dancing around his kitchen, his laptop on the counter with Harry's new album on blast.

“ _The story of my life, I take her home. I drive all night to keep her warm and time...is frozen!”_ Louis sings along, having already learned the lyrics. This was a deep hole Lottie had dug him in, one he was almost embarrassed to be stuck in.

He grabs the pizza rolls from the freezer, too lazy to actually cook anything. Who needs healthy food when you've got Harry Styles's new album.

He barely hears his phone's ring tone over the music. He shoves the pizza rolls in the toaster over, picking up his phone and reading over the text from Harry.

_'your face is lovely' -Harry_

He arches an eyebrow, puzzled for a minute before figuring that Harry had probably meant his face page. He smirks, rolling his eyes and leaning on the counter as he replies.

_'im glad you think so. now that you've seen what i look like, when do i get to see that pretty face of yours?' -Louis_

He turns up the volume on his laptop as his favorite song comes on , continuing to sing and dance around the kitchen in nothing but boxers. This was probably the only perk of living alone. Well, that and the fact that he didn't have anyone to nag him about doing the dishes (although, Niall would yell at him every once in a while).

“ _I don't care what people say when we're together! You know I wanna be the one who hold you when you sleep. I just want it to be you and I forever! I know you wanna leave so come on baby be with me so happily.”_ Louis belts out the lyrics, not caring if he's being too loud or if the neighbors can hear him. At this point they should be used to his daily Harry Styles sessions, seeing as they've gone on for months now.

The toaster oven timer dings, startling Louis a little. He grabs a plate and a fork from the dishwasher, carefully opening the toaster oven and pulling out his pizza rolls with the fork. This was all he really needed in life, pizza rolls and Harry Styles.

He sets aside the plate so his food can cool down, picking up his phone when it goes off.

_'mm, soon. not now though, if that's what you were hoping for' -Harry_

He pouts until he realizes Harry can't see him and that this effect won't exactly work on him.

_'that is completely unfair. i should hide my face page.' -Louis_

He resumes his singing and dancing until a slow song begins to play, in which he leans against the counter again and eats his pathetic excuse for lunch. He has to make the difficult decision to eat or text Harry back, and he can't believe he chose Harry over eating. It's a miracle, really.

_'i've already seen it, love. try again.' -Harry_

_'how rude.' -Louis_

He sets his phone on silents, not wanting to be interrupted from eating again (which honestly, he's still checking his phone every five seconds to see if Harry replies). He finishes after ten minutes of texting Harry, then goes on to get ready for work, turning off the music and retreating to his bedroom.

_'well since you've obviously been stalking me , tell me about yourself.' -Louis_

Louis presses send after interrogating Harry on what he had found out from Louis's about me page. It simply wasn't right that Harry knew a lot of information about Louis and it wasn't mutual. The only thing he really knew about Harry was, well, his name and that he lived in London.

He gets dressed as Harry types, and he's glad his multitasking skills have improved, honestly. A month or two ago, he would've been sat on his bed, texting and forgetting about having to go to work. He silently applauds himself for his new found talents and continues to pull his pants on.

He gets a new text from Harry as soon as he puts on his shoes and pulls on a beanie. He grabs his phone off the charger, reading Harry's text intently and gathering all the information from it. It was a pretty long message, but Louis didn't mind reading all of it.

_'hm, well, i'm 20, I live in london, Im really passionate about music and photography, my favorite style of music is indie, and im proper obsessed with the 1975. I travel a lot, as well, for my job mostly. my favorite place ive been to is australia, definitely, but california has a special place in my heart. I can kinda cook and my best mate is a dick who's reading this while I type.' -Harry_

Louis smiles fondly, glad that he knows a bit more about Harry. He sounds interesting, a lot more interesting than Louis has ever been. The only thing he could possibly relate to is his best mate being a dick. He's never been out of England, really, except for that one time he went to Ireland with Niall. Besides that, his life was boring compared to Harry's.

_'look at you , being all cool and stuff. you make me seem lame. anyways , im off to work. talk to you when I get off !' -Louis_

He taps the send button, sliding his phone in his phone in his pocket and exiting his flat.

 

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis isn't a fan of popstars. Unless the popstar has curly hair, green eyes, and is named Harry Styles. He really likes that popstar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok, damn, theres a really long scene in here, but i guess its cool. anyways, here's the next chapter ^.^

_'my best mate is dragging me to this party which may or may not be hosted by a friend of that guy at my work thats proper obsessed with me.'_

 

Louis clicks post, taking advantage of Niall making himself a sandwich. Niall had seen his blog plenty of times, but it was the fact that Niall couldn't just shut up instead of teasing him that he refused to allow Niall to see his posts. Then, there's also the Harry thing.

 

He tells himself that he's not going to tell Niall about his Harry. He's not going to tell anyone, really. There's no reason to, so he's not going to do it.

 

Except, Niall has his ways of finding things out when Louis is trying to hide them. He's known Louis for years and at this point, he can read him like an open book. Louis's surprised it had taken so long for him to find out about the Harry Styles thing.

 

Louis comes up with a plan to keep Niall from finding out, which includes trying not to text Harry around him, but he's certain he's gonna screw that up so he just changes Harry's contact name to something less suspicious and moves on with his life.

 

“Are you still going on with this Harry Styles thing?” Niall asks when he walks into Louis's room, collapsing on his bed and trying to peek at Louis's laptop. Louis rolls his eyes, grabbing his laptop away from Niall and setting it on his desk.

 

“Says the one who's proper obsessed with Demi Lovato.” Louis throws back, walking towards his closet and grabbing a pair of vans from the bottom. Niall grunts, distracting himself with his phone while Louis slipped on his shoes.

 

“She is a respectable artist who has been through a lot.” He replies. Louis scoffs, throwing one of his shoes at Niall. It hits the blonde on the side of his thigh, which didn't really hurt, but that wasn't going to stop Niall from complaining. “Oi! Rude.” He exclaims, narrowing his eyes at Louis before sitting up.

 

Louis snickers, grabbing his phone off the charger and exiting his bedroom. “Harry Styles is respectable mate. He can grab more girls _and_ guys than you could ever pull.”

 

“You only say that because you want to get in his pants.” Niall says, standing up from the bed and following Louis out of the room. Louis stops for a minute, prepared to argue, but instead grabs his keys off the coffee table and shrugs.

 

“That,” He begins, heading towards the front door. “is very true.”He grins widely, opening the door and waiting for Niall to step out into the hallway.

 

Niall exits Louis's flat, turning to his mate with a very disgusted look on his face. “I could've gone a very long time without knowing you want to shag Harry Styles.”

 

Louis shakes his head, closing and locking the door. “Let's be honest here Niall,” He wraps an arm around Niall's shoulders, the both of them beginning to walk towards the elevator in Louis's building. “everyone knows that I want to shag Harry Styles. It's a well known fact, one that I make aware to everyone I meet.”

 

“You're ridiculous.” Niall says, pressing the down button on the elevator. The doors open quickly and they both step in, Louis pressing the one button.

 

“That may be true, but I have a better chance of shagging Harry Styles than you do of pulling any girl from this party tonight.” He smirks, sliding his phone out of his pocket and opening a new message from Harry.

 

_'hm, a party? Sounds fun. Im probably gonna walk around, see if I can take pictures' -Harry_

“Who's that?” Niall asks, leaning over to get a glimpse of Louis's phone. Louis steps away from Niall, doing his best to type out a text to Harry and shield his phone at the same time.

 

_'ah, yes, hipster blog, i forgot' -Louis_

 

“A friend.”

 

“What kind of friend.”

 

“A good one.”

 

“Guy or girl?”

 

“Fish.” Louis answers, catching Niall off guard. Niall crosses his arms, arching an eyebrow and waiting for Louis to give a serious answer. Louis sighs, shoving his phone in his pocket. “It's a guy.”

 

Niall purses his lips, debating on whether or not to press on the subject, but the elevator reaches the first floor, interrupting his thoughts. Louis grabs his arm, pulling him out of the elevator and out towards his car. He lets go as soon as they reach it, unlocking and opening the door.

 

“Oh, so _that_ kind of friend.” Niall teases, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively and opening the passenger door. Louis ignores him, getting into the car and pushing his key into the ignition. “Don't ignore me, Tommo.” He says, getting in the car and fastening his seat belt.

 

“I'm not ignoring you, I'm simply refusing to answer a question because no matter what, you're going to assume the sexual version of it.” Louis tells him, plugging his phone into the car and pressing shuffle on his music. Niall groans when one of the newest Harry Styles songs begins to play, reaching for Louis's phone.

 

Louis smacks his hand, shooting Niall a dirty look. “Don't you dare change this song. My car, my music.”

 

“You're trying to corrupt me, aren't you.” Louis doesn't answer. Instead, he sings along to the song and begins driving, pretending as if Niall isn't in the passenger seat criticizing every lyric.

 

* * *

 

 

Somehow, Harry manages to sneak past the small crowd of fans (that seemed to be growing by the minute) outside of his hotel, going out through the kitchen and exiting from there. He continues walking towards the park in silence, taking in the sights and snapping a picture when he felt it was necessary. Los Angeles had a lot of sights he never really saw on tv or online and he wanted to appreciate all of them.

 

He reaches the park after walking a total of twenty minutes, but only because he was so captivated by everything and stopped to take a picture every few seconds or so.

 

He hadn't received any text messages from Louis during the walk, unfortunately, but Zayn asks him where he was and he gets a selfie of Gemma with her new boyfriend.

 

Instead of replying to either of them, he shuts his phone off and shoves it in his bag. At any other time, he'd happily reply to Gemma and rudely respond to Zayn, but he'd rather take pictures without any distractions, just so he doesn't miss anything worth capturing.

 

He sits in a grassy area near the lake, which he hopes is far enough that not many people pass by there. It's quiet and secluded, calming Harry a bit as he takes in his surroundings. He sets his bag off to the side of him, then places both his hands on his camera and searches for something interesting enough to take a picture of.

 

Of course, it's only three pm, so there's only blue skies and calm waters and he can't help himself to compare both to the color of Louis's eyes. He decides that Louis's eyes look nicer, much more serene and captivating.

 

He sighs, laying back on the grass and placing his camera on his stomach. _Louis,_ he really wants to take a picture of Louis. He's just one of those people that are just naturally picture perfect, and Harry can't find anything else as amazing to take a picture of at the moment.

 

He sits up, giving up and grabbing his journal from his bag and pulling out a pen. He takes his camera from around his neck, putting onto his bag and focusing back on writing. He might as well make the use of some quiet time if he wasn't going to take pictures.

 

He jots things down in her journal for about an hour before deciding to check his phone. He grabs it from his back, switching it back on and laughing when he sees the amount of messages from Zayn.

 

_'mate, where are you?' -Zayn_

 

_'you're not at your hotel, why?' -Zayn_

 

_'harry, answer you phone.' -Zayn_

 

_'seriously man, where are you?' -Zayn_

 

_'are you taking pictures again?' -Zayn_

 

_'just call me when you get back to the hotel' -Zayn_

 

Harry rolls his eyes, looking to see if he had messages from anyone else. He's got one from Louis, a drunk selfie of him and Niall with the caption _'dont u wish u were us'_. He chuckles, choosing not to reply so he won't interrupt Louis while he was with friends.

 

He procrastinates for a bit, opening the tumblr app and scrolling through his dashboard. It's not what he intended, but hey, it was almost five pm and he was still waiting for the sun to set. He actually wasn't one hundred sure when the sun set in California, but he was hoping it was sometime between now and seven o'clock. Any later than that and he'd just leave and get up early on his next day off to take a picture of the sunrise.

 

His phone beeped again, showing yet another picture message notification from Louis. He arches an eyebrow, clicking the notification box and smiling when he sees the picture and the caption. It's another of him and Niall, except instead of being lively and energetic, Niall seems annoyed and upset while Louis looks much more excited like the last picture.

 

_'he got rejctd again:/ but!!!!! i got tem to play harrys new album!!!!! the entire thng!!! he dint cheer up' -Louis_

 

Harry shakes his head, typing back a reply this time. Obviously, Louis didn't mind Harry texting him during the party,

 

_'how did you manage that? and which song are they playing?' -Harry_

 

He sends the message quickly, checking his email while he waits for Louis to respond. There's nothing interesting, really. Emails from management, tumblr follower updates, promo things, nothing he really cared about. He doesn't know why he bothers checking his email, it's simply a waste of time. He could spend that time doing more important things, such as procrastinating photography and blogging.

 

He looks ahead at the water, seeing that the sun was beginning to set a bit. It was at the stage where the sky turned a pinkish orange and Harry's decided that now was the time to begin taking pictures.

 

The thing Harry doesn't understand is why so many music artists refer to someone or something being as beautiful as a blue sky when there were things _so_ much more beautiful. A blue sky was nice, sure, but an _orange_ sky or a pink sky, maybe even purple, it was so different and so wonderful to see. A blue sky is so boring, but the others are much more bright and lively. It was a confusing topic for him.

 

He picks up his camera, bringing it towards his face and slowly snapping a few pictures of the sky before his phone goes off with the message tone. He almost drops his camera , regaining his hold on it and glancing towards his phone.

 

He swaps the camera and the phone, automatically going straight to Louis's message screen and reading the message from the lad. It was a routine at this point.

 

' _ok so the dj guy here is nick so i asked him v nicely and he said yes. i may have winked and blew him a kiss. oops. And right now, theyr playng midnight memories ' -Louis_

 

Harry furrows his eyebrows, trying to remember if Louis had ever mentioned this Nick bloke before. He doesn't recognize the name at all, and he's far too curious not to ask who it is.

 

_'who's nick?' -Harry_

 

It was obviously someone Louis knew, but the question was _how._ Harry didn't really have to know, but that wasn't going to stop him from wanting to know. He knew who Niall was, only because he was in Louis's tumblr pictures a lot.

 

His phone goes off only a few minutes after he's sent the text, which is the fastest Louis's replied to him the entire day.

 

_'rmr the guy i went on a date with????? thts him. its his friends party.' -Louis_

 

Harry sighs, rolling his eyes. Louis obviously seemed to dislike him, so Harry had an immediate dislike for him. He couldn't really jump to conclusions, considering he's never actually _met_ the lad, but he's just going to have to go by Louis's judgment on this one.

 

_'ohhh, that guy. i remember that guy. and by the way, i also like that song.' -Harry_

 

He stands up, putting his camera around his next and picking up his back before beginning the walk back to his hotel. He hadn't taken as many pictures of the park as he had originally planned, but he got a few and that's enough to put on his blog. He also still had those pictures from earlier, which he was completely content with.

 

Louis texts him back as he's walking through the park, making him pause to reply. It's probably going to take him around the same amount of time it took him to get there to head back at this rate.

 

' _I THOUGT U DINT LIKE HARRY STYLES?????????' -Louis_

 

Harry's eyes light up and he suppresses a laugh, not wanting to draw attention to himself. Not that he would, honestly. It's getting late and who comes to the park nowadays. All of his fans are outside the hotel and he's certain no one actually knows where he is.

 

_'im nuetral. hard not to know the songs when thats all thats on the radio' -Harry_

 

He's not exactly lying. It's more along the lines of 'I'm your favorite singer, but I don't want to tell you because I don't want to freak you out or something'. He's trying to be a vague as possible with his answers, just so he doesn't accidentally slip up and blow his cover. Does he have a cover? He didn't even give Louis a different name, god he was so stupid. He could've given it away just by giving Louis his name. He didn't, luckily, but was a possibility.

 

_'nuetral my arse you enJOY HARRY STYLES. STOP BEING A BLOODY HIPSTER' -Louis_

 

“Hey.” Harry says to no one in particular. Okay, he didn't mean to say it out loud, but Louis had possibly tried to offend him and it had taken him off guard. He glances around, praying that no one saw him talking to himself. All he needed was a headline saying that he was mental and he talked to himself.

 

_'maybe you're just being a fangirl.' -Harry_

 

That was a shitty response and Harry knows it, but Louis's drunk so maybe he won't notice how bad it was and get offended anyways. That's what he relied on for the majority of his insults, anyways.

 

_'ur comebacks suck' -Louis_

 

Harry pouts, even though we knew that was going to be the results. The only person he's ever been _genuinely_ mean to is Zayn, even then, Zayn teases him on how terrible him insults were. Whatever. Zayn could shove hair products up his arse for all Harry cared.

 

_'im trying my best' -Harry_

 

He reaches the crosswalk when the sign is on walk, fortunately. He makes sure not to look down at his phone while he's crossing, not wanting to break into that habit. Last time he didn't he almost go hit by someone on a bike and he would really like to not relive that memory.

 

The hotel is only about ten minutes away from where he's standing, and he's not certain if he wants to take longer so he can text Louis or ignore the message and get back quicker. Then again, the quicker he gets back, the longer he'd have to take with fans for pictures. The back door is probably locked, meaning he'd have to go through the front. There were probably too many fans to get inside quickly by now.

 

He sighs, looking around before he sees a Starbucks a couple of blocks down from him. He might as well just wait there and message Louis while he waits for the amount of fans to die down.

 

His phone rings while he's walking there and he's worried for a few seconds that it's Louis. If he answered, Louis would probably recognize his voice and realize that him and famous Harry were the same person. That'd be a huge train wreck.

 

He checks the caller id, surprised to see Liam's name on the screen. Since when did he even _have_ Liam's number?

 

God damn it Zayn.

 

He answers it as he answers Starbucks, internally groaning when he sees a group of teenage girls in line. Alright, he's not exactly annoyed, but now he's got Liam on the phone in front of fans and now he's gonna have to put on an act because of it. Or at least he thinks they're fans, either way, Liam has the worst timing and Zayn sucks for giving Liam his number in the first place.

 

“Harry! Is this a bad time? Zayn asked me to call to see where you were.” Liam says sincerely. Harry bites his lip, sneaking past the girls and sitting at a table towards the back. If they don't see him, they can't talk to him.

 

“What? No, I'm just at a Starbucks near my hotel. The one we went to the other day.” Zayn really needed to stop acting as if Harry was a twelve year old that got lost easily. That was only one time when he was sixteen and he wasn't going to do it again.

 

“Oh. Do you mind if I meet you there? My hotel is pretty boring and I don't really know anyone here, obviously.” Liam asks. Harry wants to say no, wants to tell him that it'll only bring more attention and then they'll have to act like a couple.

 

“Sure.” But that comes out instead and he's not entirely sure why. His mouth is definitely not cooperating with his brain.

 

“Great! I'll be there in five.” Liam hangs up the phone before Harry can say anything, leaving Harry to wonder why he agreed to this and bang his head on the table at the same time.

 

He gets another text from Louis while he's having his crisis, and the message tone captures the attention of the girls who were just now on their way out. Their eyes widen and Harry immediately knows that they're fans.

 

Harry smiles weakly at them, waving and going back to checking his phone. There goes his plan of not being seen. Maybe if he pretends that he's busy then they'll have enough common sense to leave him alone.

 

_'ok, so, me and niall never established who was guna be the driver for tonight and now we're both pissed drunk. fuck.' -Louis_

 

He laughs a bit too loudly and is too distracted by the text to see that the girls had decided to approach him instead of leave.

 

“You're Harry Styles.” One of them says, gaining Harry's attention.

 

“I think I am. Either that or my mum has been lying to me for the last twenty years.” He jokes, grinning and writing out a reply to Louis.

 

_'can't you ask that nick guy to drive you home?' -Harry_

 

“Is that Liam?” Another asks, causing the rest of them to start giggling. Harry's about to protest, but then he sees Liam walking through the door and he's really thinks that fate hates him. They turn around when they see Harry glance at the door, gasping and whispering things to themselves. “It was Liam!” The same girl (or a different one, Harry really doesn't know) exclaims.

 

Liam walks towards them, glancing between the group of girls and Harry. “Are you busy, Harry?”

 

Harry opens his mouth to say something but one of the girls interrupts him before he has the chance. Why couldn't it have been quiet fans that ask for a picture and then leave. It just had to be the curious ones that talk too much. Not that he hated his fans, some just didn't know their limits.

 

“We're sorry for interrupting your date! Bye Harry!” She says, her and her friends scurrying out with their drinks. Harry stares at the door, confused on what had just happened. They hadn't even _asked_ for anything.

 

“How did you do that.” Harry mutters, looking at Liam with disbelief. “I've never had fans leave without anything before.”

 

“I'm sure they're still outside taking pictures for proof.” Liam tells him, laughing. Harry smiles, looking down at his phone to see if Louis's replied. He could check his phone, right? This wasn't supposed to look like a proper date, so it was fine. “What day do you go back to England?”

 

“Saturday. So three more days, which are going to be filled with nothing but pr and promo.” Harry says, smiling at Louis's reply.

 

' _NICK????? WHAT??? wait no thats not a bad idea. thanks. ok, so theres a drinking game happnin so il text u later' -Louis_

 

Harry sighs, putting his phone him his back and standing up from his seat. “Do you want something to drink?” He asks Liam, nodding towards the cash register. Liam nods, standing up as well and following Harry to the line.

 

* * *

 

 

Louis's standing off to the side, not entirely sure where Niall has gone. They finished that drinking game, but Louis's phone died and he still had to ask Nick if he would mind driving him and Niall home.

 

He could see Nick from where he was and there was no doubt in his mind that Nick could see him, but he was drunk and he did and said stupid things and he didn't want to give Nick a reason to make fun of him the next time he was at work.

 

“Louis!” Louis jumps, turning around and seeing Niall standing behind him. “What are you doing?”

 

“I'm asking Nick to drive us home.” Louis answers, turning back around.

 

“Nick is across the ro-”

 

“I understand!” Louis clears his throat, letting out a deep breath and crossing the room to where Nick was. Of course, not after having to squeeze through the numerous amount of people that somehow appeared just as he decided to walk to where Nick was. God he hated parties. He doesn't even know why he let Niall drag him to this one.

 

“Nick.” He says, standing in front of the taller lad and crossing his arms. He could only hope he looked intimidating. Nick glanced up from his phone, pursing his lips when he sees Louis.

 

“I can't play anymore songs by Harry.” He mumbles. Louis rolls his eyes. Was that all anyone ever thought of him anymore? That he was some twenty two year old bloke that obsessed over popstars? Maybe they were right, but that wasn't the point

 

“I need you to drive me home.” Alright then, straight to the point. “Niall's being a shit and I'm tired and I'll give you money for a cab or the tube or whatever.”

 

“Yeah fine.”

 

Louis blinks a few times, wondering how it was so easy. “You sure?” He asks, squinting. It was never that easy with Nick.

 

Nick nods again, seeming amused. Louis scoffs. Him being drunk was not entertaining. “It's fine. Right now or?”

 

“Now is fine. I'll go get Niall.” Louis walks off back to where he was, only to see that Niall's left again. He groans, eyes searching the room before he gives up and walks back to where Nick was. “Fuck it. Niall can find a way back.” He mutters to Nick, handing Nick his car keys and walking out to his car with Nick trailing right behind him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis isn't a fan of popstars. Unless the popstar has curly hair, green eyes, and is named Harry Styles. He really likes that popstar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okayokayokay, i tried to write this as fast as i could today, and i think its okay? id, we'll see

' _finally flying back home. Missed my bed.'_  


 

Harry clicks post, then puts his phone on airplane mode before putting on his headphones and leaning back into his seat. He'd go and tweet something, but then that'd just make everything seem suspicious, so he'll juts wait until he gets home.

 

An entire week of promo and pr and he's finally done, finally on his way home where he cans tay in bed for a week if he wanted to. Or at least, if he didn't anything planned for that week. Which he shouldn't because Zayn promised that after that week in LA he wouldn't have to do any more promo fro a month, at least. He's definitely looking forward to it.

 

“Are you not going to text Louis and let him know Harry Styles is on his way back to London?” Zayn teases, nudging Harry's shoulder. Harry rolls his eyes, turning up his music to block out Zayn's endless teasing. “Don't ignore me.”

 

Harry smirks, closing his eyes and continuing to disregard anything that came out of Zayn's mouth. That is, until Zayn took out one of his headphones and disrupted his peace. "What, Zayn?" He asks, annoyance laced in his tone. 

 

"Mate, don't ignore me with your hipster music or whatever it is you listen to." Zayn sticks out his tongue, nudging Harry's shoulder and giving back the ear bud. 

 

"First of all, it's the  _Arctic Monkeys_. Who doesn't listen to them?" He glares, grabbing his ear bud from Zayn and opening his mouth to continue. "And secondly, I wasn't planning to stay awake the entire twelve hours." 

 

Zayns sighs, leaning back in his seat as the flight took off. "At least talk to me until I can get out my laptop." Harry rolls his eyes, but takes out his earbuds and faces Zayn. His best friend was such a pain in the ass. More so than his manager was. It was terrible that they were the same person.

 

"What do you want to talk about, then?" This is the thing, Harry and Zayn have  _nothing_  in common. There's small things, but besides that Zayn's off doing his manager stuff while Harry's usually at home on his laptop. Everyonce in a while they'll go to a club or something, or maybe just sit around Harry's place and watch movies all night, but that was it. Yet, Harry really wouldn't trade it for anything. 

 

"Let's talk about your favorite topic." Oh fuck.

 

"Zayn, I swear-"

 

"Louis!" Zayn exclaims and Harry regrets telling Zayn who he was. He should've just lied and said that he was texting his sister, but he had to go ahead and be honest with his best friend and this is where it's gotten him.

 

Non-stop for the past few days,  _everything_  was about Louis. And sure, Harry was glad Zayn wasn't pissed about him talking to a fan, but Zayn was  _constantly_  teasing him about it and it was getting really old really quick.

 

"No." Harry says simply, ready to put his ear buds back in. Zayn purses his lips and shakes his head,

 

"Not getting out of it that easily." Zayn tells him. "When are you gonna tell him who you are?"

 

Harry shrugs. "When I feel like it. Let's talk about something else. How about Liam, let's talk about Liam." Zayn stays silent, slouching in his seat. "Gotcha."

 

"You got nothing."

 

" _You like Liam."_  Harry whispers, not wanting anyone else on the plane to hear. Zayn shakes his head, smacking Harry's arm and going to grab his laptop from underneath the seat. "Who's ignoring who now?"

 

Zayn huffs, putting down the tray and placing his laptop on top of it. "I don't like Liam, what are we, in year five?" He mutters, powering up his laptop and waiting for it to load.

 

"Oh please, I saw how you were looking at him when we were in my hotel room. You have a thing for Liam." Harry smirks, poking Zayn's arm. The last day Harry was there, Zayn decided on having a group movie night, so he invited himself and Liam over to Harry's hotel (without his permission, as usual) and they spent the entire night watching whatever movies the hotel had to rent and ordering room service.

 

"What, like a normal person?" Zayn shoots back, opening up a movie he had on his laptop and grabbing a pair of headphones from his laptop case. "At least I didn't drool like someone did over  _Louis._ " 

 

Harry sighs. "How do you always bring this back to Louis?" 

 

"Because it bothers the hell out of you and as your best friend, I need to take advantage of that." Zayn replies, patting Harry's shoulder and plugging in his headphones. He had an answer for everything and Harry was tired of never having something clever to say back.

 

"You suck." That was clever, right? Maybe? Who's he kidding, the only person he's ever offended was his six year old cousin, and even then the kid's comebacks were better than his.

 

"Not for free."

 

Harry scrunches his face, putting his ear buds back in and un-pausing his music. "I'll be sure to let Liam know." Okay, so, maybe his comeback  _were_  getting a bit better.

 

* * *

 

"Niall!" Louis yells, reaching for his phone. Niall shakes his head, getting up from the sofa and running to the bathroom. He locks the door as soon as Louis reaches it. Louis bangs on the door, shaking the handle and attempting to unlock the door. "Give back my phone!"

 

"Not until you tell me who you're always texting." Niall replies and Louis groans, kicking the door. The one time he decided to be a little bit reckless and text Harry in front of Niall, this happens. Thank god Harry hadn't replied. Why can't Niall just be a normal person and let Louis text freely in front of him without making a big deal out of it. For all he knows, Louis could have been texting his mum or one of his sisters. Bloody Niall and jumping to conclusions.

 

"My lover." Louis replies with a smirk, continuing to mess with the handle in an attempt to unlock the door. "Give my phone back."

 

"New message from H. Who is this H, and why haven't I heard of them?" Louis hits the door as hard as he can, holding his hand right after he does and pretending the sting didn't hurt. "Harry? Please don't tell me you think you're talking to Harry Styles."

 

Louis shakes his head and huffs. "I'm not an idiot, Niall." He mumbles, crossing his arms and giving up on the door.. He turns around and sits with his back against it, waiting for Niall o give in and open the door. "He's a guy I met on tumblr. Give back my phone dickhead."

 

"I'm not gonna have nightmares if I go through your messages, am I?" 

 

"I'm not gonna tell you."

 

"Well I'm going to make an educated guess and say no." Louis groans, hitting his head against the door. He scrambles to his feet, rushing to his room and grabbing his laptop before scurrying back to the bathroom door and sitting against it. Niall going through all of his and Harry's messages was gonna take a while. "Who's Z?"

 

"His best friend. Apparently he's just as annoying as you are."

 

Niall bangs the door and Louis jumps a bit. "Oi, rude." Louis scoffs, moving away from the door a bit and typing out a new post.

 

_'is anyone in search for a blond irish boy? friend, boyfriend, sex slave, doesnt matter as long as i get rid of him. warning, he may spontaneously grab your phone. please contact my ask box for details.'_

He smiles and clicks post, refreshing his dashboard and going through the posts. His entire dash was photos of Harry at LAX with one of his mates that Louis could never remember the name of. "Hey Niall, do you wanna go to Heathrow airport at eight o'clock in the morning with me?" Louis asks, reblogging a photo set and going up to his ask box. According to the messages he was getting, Harry's flight had left at two pm California time, so it should get there are eight or nine am. Pretty early, but meeting Harry would be worth it, probably."Better yet, let's just go to London now. Make a nice trip out of it. I've got off for the next few days, and I'm sure you can ask for a couple days off work."

 

Niall unlocks and opens the door, looking down at Louis with a baffled expression. "Why?" He hands Louis back his phone, stepping around him and entering the kitchen. Louis puts his laptop aside and slides his phone in his pocket, getting up and following Niall.

 

"Harry Styles is flying in. Wanna see if I can get a couple of pictures to put online. I got a new camera, too. What do you say?" Louis props himself a top of a counter, smiling and swinging his legs. Niall shrugs, opening Louis's fridge and grabbing a beer.

 

"What the hell, why not. Might be nice to meet someone famous." Niall mutters. Louis claps his hands together and takes out his phone. Still no reply from Harry. Strange, Harry doesn't usually take this long to respond during the evening. 

 

"You're totally warming up to Harry Styles."

 

"I am not."

 

"Wait until we see him in person, you're gonna join me." Louis grins, sliding off the counter and grabbing a bag of crisps from the cupboard. "Hey, you know what? Harry lives in London, think he'll be up for us visiting?" He questions, tapping around his phone screen and still waiting for Harry's reply. Nothing yet.

 

Niall furrows his eyebrows, taking a handful of crisps from the bag. "Mate, I don't think Harry Styles would appreciate us stalk-"

 

Louis shakes his head. "I meant  _my_  Harry, you dumbarse." He says, rolling his eyes and walking out into the living room. He should probably come up with a nickname or something for Harry, just to make it easier for Niall. God, he wouldn't  _have_  to make it easier for Niall if the lad would've just stayed out of his phone. He needs a faster reaction time, or at least and easier phone to lock so things like this wouldn't happen in the future.

 

* * *

"I'm almost ninety percent sure we're not supposed to come here." Niall points out as Louis sneaks in towards the international flight gate. "Yeah, definitely not supposed to be over here." He gestures to the empty hall, showing nothing but business execs and airport staff. "This is for people with tickets, Louis."

 

"Do you want to meet Harry or not?" Louis shoots, sitting at a bench near the gate and taking out his phone. Niall sits as well, shaking his head and keeping his eyes out for anyone that could possibly kick them out. "Stop being so nervous. No one's gonna know we shouldn't be here if we act like we should be here."

 

Niall rolls his eyes. "Where do you get all of this from?" He asks, sliding his phone out of his pocket. 

 

"I found this post on tumblr-"

 

"Stop talking now." Niall mutters, shaking his head and distracting himself with his phone. Louis sticks his tongue out, leaning back and opening the tumblr app. He takes a picture of the gate with his phone, and yeah, there was a greater chance of him being called insane by Harry Styles, but all that counts is making an impression and this would definitely do the trick.

 

_'call me crazy, but i snuck to harry's flight gate? i'll tell you how it goes.'_

He presses posts and watches as his activity rises and his ask box blows up, more so than usual. He checks his ask, smiling when he sees the messages and getting slightly more anxious with each one.

 

_'holy shit, lou, you're gonna meet harry.'_

_'tell us if youre soulmates or not, thanks'_

_'dudeeee, no fucking way? arent you supposed to not be there????'_

He answers as many as he can, making sure to save posts for when he possibly meets Harry. There could always be the small chance of him not actually being on that flight, but hey, Louis will take any chance he could get.

 

"Isn't that his flight?" Niall asks, pointing out the glass screen where a flight had just landed and was now pulling in. Louis thinks he's almost stopped breathing. Harry was on that plane, probably. Louis was going to meet Harry, probably. He really wished he didn't have to add probably to the end of anything. "Please don't get us arrested." Niall pleads.

 

Louis glares at him, hitting his arm. "Shut the fuck up." He mumbles, putting his phone away in his pocket and taking his digital camera off from around his wrist. He didn't even know how he was going to do anything. He was the only one there, what if Harry didn't have time, or what if he called security, or shit, what he he ignored him completely. Louis would die. More than he would if Harry were to agree to a picture.

 

The doors to the gate open and a large amount of people walk out, but none of them being Harry. Louis slouches for a minutes before realizing that they were all economy and first class hadn't gotten off yet. He stands, walking slightly closer to the exit. His stomach begins to feel weird and he almost wants to walk back, to tell Niall that they should just go home.

 

Except he doesn't because first class is coming off the plane and he's frozen in place because,  _fuck_ , Harry Styles is walking out, headscarf and all, and he doesn't know what to do. Niall notices and gives Louis a quick shove, snapping him out of it. He takes a deeps breath, walking up to Harry was standing as calmly as he can. It was a lot calmer than he had expected.

 

Harry doesn't notice him at first, too wrapped up in a conversation with a friend, who Louis recognizes as his manager Zayn.. His eyes glance over to Louis quickly, then back to Zayn before he focuses his eyes back on Louis. "Shit." He accidentally says out loud and Louis automatically assumes that he's pissed and is about to run off when Harry reaches out and grabs his arm.

 

  
_This is it,_  Louis thinks. Harry Styles was going to have him and Niall arrested and that would be the end of everything. "I know we're not supposed to be here and we'll leave if you want, honestly." Louis blabbers, eyes glued to the ground. Niall's standing behind him, just as starstruck as Louis is, but still able to speak properly. 

 

"One picture, at least?" Niall asks. Harry nods, glancing over to Zayn who just seems plain confused.

 

"Give me a minute." Harry says, turning to Zayn and saying something that Louis can't quite make out what it is, but Zayn seems amused and Harry looks like he wants to punch him. "Fucking Zayn." He says quietly, but Louis hears and laughs softly, which gains Harry's attention again. "How did you two get here?"

 

Louis shrugs, biting his lip. "I know someone that works here." He answers, his camera shaking in his hand. "We'll leave after the picture, I swear." 

 

"I don't care, just wanted to know." Harry tells him. "Quite odd, really. Don't exactly have older male fans sneaking into airports for a picture."

 

"What about a video for their younger sister that got them into this mess in the first place?" Louis says without thinking, grinning sheepishly when he realizes what he said. Harry laughs, though, and Louis can't believe he's hearing Harry Styles's laugh in person.

 

Louis quickly hands his camera to Niall, taking his phone out and opening the camera app. "Her name is Lottie, or Charlotte, either one. I'm Louis, by the way."  _I know,_ Harry wants to reply, but he keeps his lips sealed and listens as Louis continues to speak. His voice was much high pitched than he had expected, but it suited him well. It had a thick Yorkshire accent and was naturally louder than most people would speak. He liked it. "I'm not wasting your time, am I? Do you have anywhere to be?" He asks, looking towards Zayn for that answer. Zayn shakes his head, giving Harry a knowing glance.

 

"Oh trust me, you're much better than all of those screaming girls outside the airport. I'm sure he prefers you. Isn't that right, Haz?" Zayn smirks, nudging Harry's arm. Louis's not sure why Zayn seems so amused by it all, but he doesn't really care. It's probably jet lag, jet lag does that to people, right? Makes them all weird and shit. Yeah, Louis's gonna go with that.

 

"Hey Zayn," Harry starts. "fuck off." Niall laughs and oh yeah, Louis's definitely going to get him into Harry after this. "So video and pictures?"

 

"Well one picture is fine-"

 

"I don't mind more than one, honestly. Not exactly hurrying to see the screaming mob of girls. The rest of my team is probably pissed that I'm not out there yet, but Zayn can handle it." Harry says. "I'll sign something too if you want, really. It's fine."

 

Zayn snorts, shaking his head. "Are you gonna offer him a blow job, too?" Zayn says quiet enough for only Harry to hear, earning a smack on the arm from Harry. "Sorry, sorry. Just do what you need. I'll go call Preston." He walks off with his phone against his ear, leaving Harry with Louis and Niall.

 

"So, video." Harry smiles, almost making Louis forget that he still has the camera app open on his phone. Everything just seemed so unreal, hell, Harry Styles was standing right in front of him. 

 

Louis nods, pressing record and telling Harry to start. Harry says a quick fifteen second greeting and Louis nearly drops his phone after he finishes. He hands Niall his phone, and stood next to Harry, which  _wow_ , Harry's so much taller than he is. Louis huffs, standing on his toes and smiling as Niall takes a couple of pictures.

 

Harry insists on different poses, and to be honest, Louis's overwhelmed at how generous Harry's being, but he's not about to complain about it. If Harry Styles offers more than one picture, you take it and roll with it.

 

"Not to sound completely cheesy..." Louis starts after the sixth picture Niall takes. "but you wouldn't mind, I don't know, kissing my cheek, maybe? No wait, forget I asked." He stumbles, but before he knows it, Harry's lips are on his cheek and he's trying to smile normally instead of looking like a complete idiot. Niall repeatedly taps the shutter button, putting phone down. 

 

"Right then, I need some picture proof that I was here." He complains, shoving his phone towards Louis and standing next to Harry. Louis takes a few pictures once they're ready. They all take a quick selfie with the three of them and Louis is going to put his phone away when he's done, but Harry grabs it from him quickly, fishing a sharpie out from his satchel and signing it swiftly. 

 

"My sister says if you put clear nail polish over it, it won't rub off." Harry says, handing it back to Louis and smiling. "Now, Zayn's probably waiting for me, and I have to face those girls. Give me your twitters, if you've got one." He takes his own phone out of his bag, opening the Twitter app and waiting for Louis to say something.

 

Louis widens his eyes, giving Harry both his and Niall's twitter. Harry follows them both and puts his phone away, smiling and saying bye before meeting up with Zayn down the corridor.

 

* * *

_'I MET HARRY STYLES FCUK, HARYR.' -Louis_

Louis hands are still shaking when they're in the car, still trying to comprehend what just happened. He had already sent the video to Lottie and was currently awaiting her reaction while trying not to cry. God damn it, why the hell did some pop star have this affect on him. He was a grown man for god's sake, he should not be breaking down over some twenty year old boy.

 

Except that twenty year old boy was Harry Styles and Louis was definitely going to break down in the streets of London. He hadn't even uploaded the pictures to tumblr because he was still trying to figure out if it were all real and how Harry was such a saint in real life, and fuck, when did this become who he was. He used to make fun of his sister for this exact reaction and here he was sitting in Starbucks with his best mate, ready to burst into tears.

 

"He follows us on-"

 

"I know, Louis."

 

"He signed my-"

 

"Yeah."

 

"He kissed my-"

 

"I was there."

 

Louis presses a hand to his face and shakes his head. "I'm not washing this side of my face ever again." He mumbles, picking his phone up off the table when it vibrates. It's from his Harry,  _finally,_ and he can barely read the letters right because of how out of focus everything seemed. It's like the only clear image was Harry Styles and that was it. He couldn't see anything else except for Harry.

 

  
_'No way!_ _did you seduce him?' -Harry_   


He smiles softly at the message, shaking his head and resting his head on the table. He could die right now and he'd be happy. He'd be more than happy, he'd be overjoyed and ecstatic and just full on excited. 

 

He lifts his head after a minute, typing back a reply to Harry.

 

_'I was too busy trying not to burst out into tears. he is so much more attractive in person. and tall.' -Louis_

He attaches one of the pictures with him and Harry, taking a minute to admire how  _amazing_  him and Harry would look as a couple. This is just a sign that it was meant to be.

 

Niall takes a sip of his drink, raising an eyebrow at Louis and peeking over at his phone. "I'll admit, Harry Styles isn't that bad." Niall says when he can't see who Louis's messaging. Louis stares up at him with bright eyes and smiles, nodding.

 

"Hell fucking yeah, I told you. No one can resist him, Niall." Niall rolls his eyes and puts his cup down.

 

"Seems like a top lad. Would probably make a better wingman than you." He says, smirking. Louis narrows his eyes, getting a message back from Lottie.

 

_'WHAT'-Lottie_

Louis decides to mess with her, sending her a picture of Harry kissing his cheek (he may or may not have made it his phone background) and going back to his chat window with Harry.

 

_'were you standing on your toes? how adorable.' -Harry_

He huffs. He's not adorable, no, he's seductive and handsome. Not adorable. Shit, what if Harry Styles thought he was only adorable. There goes his chances of ever having a one night stand with him. 

 

_'I'm not adorable. niall, niall's adorable. I am not.' -Louis_

He exits out of the messaging app, going straight to the tumblr one and finally uploading the pictures. He gets numerous asks about it and he answer them as much as he can, which is a lot because he remembers every word Harry said. 

 

"Are we gonna go back to the hotel?" Niall asks, standing up. Louis nods, standing up as well and shoving his phone in his pocket.

 

* * *

Harry's not sure what to make of what happened today.

 

He's met Louis, that was  _great_ , but Louis had no idea it was him and so now he sits and sulks with the 1975 playing while scrolling through Louis's blog and looking through all of the pictures. And if he reblogs a few of them, then oh well. His followers can deal with pop culture for five minutes. 

 

Zayn was a terrible friend, first of all. He was out to ruin Harry's life without ruining his career and Harry's not sure how that works, but Zayn figured out how to do it and he's pretty damn good at it. 

 

That's all Zayn would bring up in the car on the way back to his flat. Him and Louis. Louis and Harry. How Harry knew who Louis was but Louis only saw him as an idol and god damn his fame. Okay, maybe he was being over dramatic. He had at least gotten to talk to Louis, even if it were only for about ten minutes and was mostly about taking a picture, but he's gonna count it as something.

 

He grabs his phone off the charger, opening the twitter app and contemplating whether or not to send Louis a dm. Would that be weird? It'd probably be weird. He's not gonna do it. Maybe just send him a nice tweet instead, yeah, that works. Makes a lot more sense that way, he thinks. Zayn would tease him relentlessly for it, but he doesn't care fr Zayn and his opinion so he's gonna go ahead and do it anyways.

 

_'@Harry_Styles: Great meeting and chatting with @Louis_Tomlinson and @NiallOfficial at the airport today. Sneaky. Also, don't forget the nail polish, lads.'_

He gets plenty of tweets after that, people wondering who they were and how Harry knew them. Then everyone found out they were just fans and now they were trying to figure how they had met Harry without anyone else noticing. Harry laughs as he reads through the replies, putting his phone back on the charger and setting his laptop back in front of him. There's people in his ask complaining about the sudden flood of, well, himself, but he ignores them, going through his dashboard as usual and smiling when he sees a text post from Louis's blog.

 

_'doncastyles: liam payne better watch out bc i am one step closer to getting into harry's pants.'_

He reblogs it without a second thought, not even taking his followers into consideration. He was going to lose so many for all of this. Whatever, it was his blog anyways. Only he feels bad for it ten seconds later and finds song lyrics and imagery to post instead. That should keep them around. 

 

His phone goes off a couple of seconds later with a text, no doubt from Louis. He picks it up, sliding the lock screen and entering his passcode.

 

_'you are pissing off your followers stop reblogging from me. theyre coming to my ask now.' -Louis_

Harry chuckles, going to make a post before texting back Louis

 

_'sleepingalone: alright, i'll stop with the harry posts. leave louis doncastyles to be, he's innocent'_

_'i fixed it. i need an "i love you harry" in return' -Harry._

He's tired and cold and he should probably take a nap soon. He tells himself after a few more messages to Louis he definitely will take a nap. Most likely. Alright, no, he'll take a nap after this next message from Louis.

 

_'youre a fucking idiot <33333:)))))))))' -Louis_

 

He sighs and types a quick reply back.

 

_'i will accept that. im knackered, so im gonna take a nap. talk to you in the afternoon' -Harry_

_'its so early though. like what, 9 am??? whatever, enjoy your nap and make sure your little hipster cult stops coming after me' -Louis_

_'will do.' -Harry._

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis isn't a fan of popstars. Unless the popstar has curly hair, green eyes, and is named Harry Styles. He really likes that popstar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i took forever, oops, forgive me. erm, un beta'd as usual, mistakes are mine, blah blah blah, ive never said that before have i. um, anyways, yeah. happy reading:~)

Louis's "Harry Styles and London" fantasies are broken when him and Niall return and he has to get ready for work the day after. He's still in a bit of a daze and he's slightly worried he may get told off for being high when he's really still in shock over meeting the lad he runs his blog on. But really, he might as well be high, because they've got the same effect on him.

He's a tad bit disappointed when the week didn't end with Harry Styles inviting him to his flat to sleep with him, but he's sure it'll happen soon enough. He's just gotta wait for the right timing and whatnot. There was also the Liam factor, but Louis didn't want to think of that. Liam was just a small obstacle in Louis's flawless plan to steal Harry's heart. Surely, Harry would soon realize that Liam wasn't the one and it was actually Louis, weird fan that snuck into the airport to meet him, that was the love of his life. He could only dream.It's not until almost noon that he finally drags himself out of his own bed and starts to get ready for work with an hour to do so. He supposes he should take a shower, but then again, it's only work and he took one the day before so he'll pass on that until he gets off. It only takes him all of twenty minutes to get dressed, another added fifteen to style his hair. Which reminds him, he's really in need of a haircut at some point. It's getting long and he's tired of taking longer than five minutes to have it the way he wants.He tells himself not to worry about it, because one day he'll be married to Harry and he'll have someone to do his hair for him on a daily basis and that's what gets him through the copious amount of hairspray he uses and the frustrated noises he makes when it gets in his mouth. He's really gotta stop let Lottie influence his thoughts, sounding like a fifteen year old girl isn't exactly one of his life goals and that's exactly what he's doing. He still hates Lottie for doing this to him. He hates Harry Styles too, just for being Harry Styles. There was no other reason besides that.Lacing up his Vans, he takes his cellphone off the charger and shoves it in the pocket of his hoodie. He sighs, walking out of his bed room and into the living room, grabbing his keys off the coffee table and continuing off towards the front door. Back to work and having to listen to Nick bother him even more now, and god damn, someone whisk him back to London. Preferably Harry Styles. He would definitely allow Harry to whisk him back to London.

* * *

  
The first thing Louis does when he walks into work is avoid Nick at all costs. He's still regretting the whole, second date suggestion he made, and maybe if he never sees Nick, he'll never have to go on the date and everything falls back into place the way it should be.

Only, Nick is in the break room when Louis walks in, ruining all of his thoughts and plans. "Hey." Nick says casually, eyes set on his phone. "Been a while, Tomlinson." It has been a while and oh how grateful Louis was for that. He hasn't even thought of Nick since the party and it's been a nice break from the constant irritation and harassment, but unfortunately, his break was over now and here he was again in the line of fire."Asked for time off." Louis replies, shoving off his hoodie and draping it on the back of a chair. "Went to London for a week."Nick seems amused, glancing up from his phone to look at Louis. "Meeting your lover boy, then?" He asks, referencing to Harry, Louis assumes. The famous one, that is. His Harry had said now wasn't a good time for Louis to meet him, so instead of that, him and Niall had just wandered around the streets of London and enjoyed their time there."I did, actually. Much lovelier in person. Quite tall, too." He smirks, not waiting for Nick's reaction as punches in his time card and exits the break room. It's only a matter of minutes before Nick is following him out, arms crossed.

 

"What do you mean? Did you really meet him?" Nick asks and Louis stops, turning around and smirking. "No you didn't" Nick says once he sees the look on Louis's face.

 

Louis pulls his phone out of his pocket, shoving it in Nick's face and showing him the lock screen. "Yes I did. In London. Signed my phone. He even tweeted me, do you want to see it?" Louis taunts, putting his phone away and beginning to walk again. Nick goes after him and Louis groans when he hears footsteps, rolling his eyes and doing his best to ignore all of the questions he heard come from Nick. 

 

"But  _how_? Did you stalk him?" Louis pauses, pursing his lips then shaking his head and walking again. So maybe it could be considered stalking, but it's not like Harry minded. "Oh my god, you stalked him!" Nick accuses and Louis is slightly offended. Okay, so he kind of broke into an airport to meet his celebrity crush, but it's not as if no one's ever done anything worse. There was that one girl that snuck into Liam Payne's hotel room last week, so he's sure his little airport think flies under the radar for now. It's not like Harry minded or anything, either.

 

"I did no such thing." He mutters. "Niall and I-" 

 

"Oh, so you brought Niall into this, too." Nick comments. Louis quickly sends him a glare. He didn't drag Niall into anything, he willingly agreed to go with him to London. So maybe there was bribery involved when Niall wouldn't wake up in the morning, but he eventually agreed, therefore Louis cannot be blamed if Niall ends up getting in trouble for any of this. Which he most likely won't, but if he does, he's not allowed to pin any of it on Louis. Best friends take the blame.

 

"Don't be a dick, Grimshaw. It doesn't look good on you." He shoots. God, he needed a new job. Or new co-workers. Or a boyfriend named Harry Styles that would take him far away from this stupid job and stupid Nick. He just wanted to be able to wake up every morning and sit on the computer without any responsibilities or socializing sometimes. Was that too much to ask for? 

 

He's about to say something else, but he gets distracted by a small girl tapping his arm and asking where the lego stuff was, so he sends Nick one last victorious glance and went off to help the girl and her mother find the section they were searching for.

 

 

* * *

  
The thing about Harry being home, is that he never answers his calls unless it's someone important. In his mind, this does not include Zayn. If it's important, Zayn will either show up or text him. In case of an emergency, Zayn will even take to twitter to get Harry's attention, except that's only happened once and it barely even worked.

So that's what Zayn does. He shows up at Harry's with take away and a couple of movies, demanding they have more "bro time" while Harry's off and Harry can't really refuse, especially since it's Thai food and movies starring Dylan O'Brien that Zayn's brought and he can't turn it away. Curse Zayn for knowing his weakness."People still wondering about Louis and Niall, you know." Zayn brings up in the middle of the Internship. Harry rolls his eyes, leaning back in the sofa and focusing back on the sight of Dylan O'Brien in a beanie and glasses. He wonders how many movie premieres he'll have to attend before he actually meets him. He should have Zayn do something about that."Don't they know that they're only fans." He replies after a couple of minutes. He grabs the container of noodles and a fork from the coffee table in front of him, turning to look at Zayn. He nods in return and Harry shrugs. "What matters is that I need you to help me meet Dylan O'Brien." He points at the screen, laying his head on Zayn's shoulder and smiling as innocently as he could.Zayn rolls his eyes and pats Harry's head. "I'll see what I can do. I heard he's a fan.""Good. Use this information." Harry replies, picking his head up off Zayn's shoulder and focusing back on the movie. It all only lasts for a few seconds before Harry turns back to Zayn and smiles mischievously. "And since we're talking about getting me things, I want a castle." He states, crossing his arms and leaning back on the sofa. "I can get you a bouncy house.""Good enough."Harry's phone vibrates on the coffee table and the both of them reach for it, Zayn being faster and grabbing it first. He stands from the sofa, rushing away from Harry and standing far enough so that Harry can't take the phone away. He places a hand to his heart and making cooing noises as as he reads who the message is from, turning the screen to face Harry. "Ooh, it's from your lover." Zayn teases, causing Harry to blush and cross his arms. "Not even gonna try to take it back?" He questions, pursing his lips and watching while Harry shakes his head, not even attempting to get up and take the phone from him. He had really thought this was going to go differently."You're just gonna run again." Harry says simply, shrugging. Zayn slouched, shaking his head. That's takes all of the fun out of it, honestly. Can't Harry at least give in a little? Entertain him, at least? "What did Louis say?"

 

"You're terrible." Zayn mutters before opening the message and reading it out loud to Harry. "Niall's being a dick again. He won't buy me tickets and go to the tour with me this year. He's a terrible best friend." Harry's sure that if Zayn and Niall met, well, properly, it'd be hard for Louis and Harry to tell who was the worst friend. Maybe Zayn. Zayn was a proper arsehole most of the time, but then again, Louis seems annoyed with Niall every time he texts Harry, so there may be some competition. 

 

Harry laughs, pausing the movie and standing up from the sofa. "Wait, the tour was announced?" When had that been a thing? Zayn hadn't told him anything about that while he was doing all the promo in LA. This would've been crucial information to know. Or actually, not really, but he'd like to know these things. Which honestly, Zayn had probably told him at some point last week but he was too tired to pay attention to anything Zayn said. Well, it's not like he listened when he wasn't tired, but this time he had an excuse

 

"Do you not pay attention to your interviews? Harry, rehearsals start next month. The tour's been announced for weeks, now." Right. It's March and the tour starts in May. He's got approximately one month of free time left and before Zayn goes back into his manager mode and there's no more movie nights with Thai food and movies with attractive people in them. And then two months until he had to leave the comfort of his bed in exchange for hotels and tour buses. Oh well, he's sure it'll be worth while like it usual is, especially if he can see Louis in the front row with whoever he would decided to take with him. That'd be the best bit, probably.

 

"Not until they start asking me questions." He says sheepishly. He never really noticed what the interviewers were saying unless they were speaking to him directly. There were a couple of times where he had accidentally ignored a few of the questions, but it wasn't noticeable most of the time, he thinks. Zayn hasn't noticed, so no one else could have noticed, obviously. Except maybe the fans, they seem to notice everything he does nowadays. They'd probably notice if he forgot to brush his teeth in the morning, honestly. Not that he ever did. If he did, there would probably be an article the next day about how terrible his hygiene was. How wonderful that would be. 

 

"You're hopeless."

 

"You love me."

  


Zayn sighs, walking up to Harry and handing back his phone. "Can't you and Louis talk about something interesting? Why are you two so boring?" He complains, sitting back down and un-pausing the movie while Harry replies to Louis. Harry scoffs, sitting on the opposite side of the sofa and resting his feet on Zayn. 

 

Louis wants concert tickets for that year's tour. Tickets, he could give Louis tickets. It would be easy for him, of course. All he would have to do is ask Zayn for a couple of extra tickets, not that he didn't already get extra tickets. Then he could send them to Louis and that would be that. Louis would love him forever.

 

' _if you want,_   _i may or may not have a way to get you tickets.' -Harry_  


Harry clicks send, knowing Zayn would probably be annoyed with him offering tickets, but he'd get over it. "What, do you expect me to send nudes?" Harry jokes, resting his phone on his chest and nudging Zayn's leg with his foot. 

 

"It'd be pretty interesting." Zayn replies, shoving Harry's legs off of him. As interesting as it may make things, he's certain Louis wouldn't exactly appreciate the spontaneous nudity. Zayn barely likes the fact that he's constantly naked and they've known each other for years. "Your legs are way too long." He says, poking Harry's leg and shaking his head. 

 

"I'm pursuing my lifelong dreams of becoming a giraffe." He mumbles, smiling lazily and glancing at the screen. They weren't even watching the movie at this point, it was just Harry glancing towards the screen whenever Dylan came on and Zayn laughing at every few jokes. They were quite the pair. 

 

"Maybe a horse. More people would ride you." Zayn smiles smugly as Harry kicks his leg again.

 

Harry gasps dramatically, shaking his head and smiling. "Inappropriate, Malik."  He pretends to scold. "How unprofessional." 

 

"Oh shut it, Styles. I could schedule you for non-stop interviews." Zayn threatens, pointing to his phone which had been on the coffee table for the majority of the time that he had been there. Unlike Harry, he didn't have anyone that he needed to constantly text, especially when with there best mate that they should be paying all of their attention to. But that was just Zayn.

 

Harry quickly stops touching Zayn's leg with his foot, pouting and grabbing his phone off his chest when it vibrates. Zayn bites his lip, glancing at Harry's phone before reaching out and snatching it from him. Harry groans in frustration, sitting up straight and watching as Zayn read through the messages again.

 

"You're gonna give him tickets? How are you going to manage that without telling him who you are? Do you think things through or do you just do them?" So maybe Zayn had a point, but Harry refused to acknowledge it right now. He had a cute internet friend to make happy and Zayn was just being a killjoy

 

"Just tell me what he said." Harry mutters. He'd figure out the details when the time came, which would hopefully not be anytime soon because he hadn't exactly come up with an explanation for it yet. He eventually would, just not now.

 

Zayn sighs, rolling his eyes and reading out the text. "How can you do that? Don't think you're buying them for me." He reads aloud. Okay, so the time had come now. That had been sooner than he was hoping for. Now he actually had to sit and think of an explanation and in reality, he should have been more prepared than this. Zayn should have warned him faster. This was all Zayn's fault. He should know better than to trust Harry with his own information by now. God damn it Zayn. 

 

Maybe he could make Zayn figure it out. Zayn would do that for him, right? That's what best friends were for, solving your problems for you and giving you answers when you were too lazy to come up with them yourself. Or was that mothers? Harry couldn't remember the difference, but either way, this was all Zayn's issue now.

 

"Zayn, how much do you love me?" Harry begins, smiling at Zayn. The other boy shakes his head and clicks his tongue, already of what game Harry was playing at. Damn, Zayn knew him too well. 

 

"Not enough to do whatever it is you're about to say."

 

Harry sighs, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes at Zayn. What a terrible best friend. Already denying him what he wants without even hearing what he wanted. Maybe he should demote Zayn and promote Liam. At least Liam had actually listened to him whenever they hung out. Granted, him and Liam hadn't known each other to the point where they can tell what the other is thinking just by looking at them, but still, Harry liked it like that. He could get away with more. Liam was great. Zayn sucks. 

 

"Zayn." He says, sitting up straight. He didn't want it to come to this, but it was for the sake of online friendships, so he was going to have to. Zayn had brought this on himself. It's his punishment for being such a terrible best friend to him.

 

"What, Harry?"

 

"The promise."

 

Zayn stares at him and Harry can actually feel the amount of judgment radiating off of him. This is what best friendship was. "We were, what, ten? Eleven? You can't use that every time I don't--"

 

"The promise, Zayn."

 

"It was a fucking  _pinky promise,_  Harry."

 

"Zayn. Please. A promise is a promise." 

 

Zayn stays silent for a few seconds before sighing loudly and giving in. "Fine, what do you want." He doesn't bother phrasing it as a question. Harry grins widely, clapping his hands together.

 

I need you to come up with a way to give Louis the tickets, thanks pal." Harry tells him, patting his shoulder and standing up. I'm gonna go take a shower. You have fun texting Louis." He walks off towards his bathroom, ignoring Zayn's protests.

 

"I have to  _text_  him?" Zayn asks, except Harry's already disappeared into the bathroom and has left Zayn to his own devices. Bloody popstars, don't know how to do anything themselves. Fine then, if Harry wants him to text Louis, then he will.

 

* * *

  
Contrary to popular belief, Louis has friends besides Niall and Harry. He considers Nick a friend, as long as you get past the constant annoyance, that is. Then he's got his other online friends, which he's probably been neglecting due to Harry, and he promises to send them a message or something when he's got the time. Except he always has time and he just tells himself he'll do it later.

 

Some of them, though, have taken it upon their own hands to message Louis, and that's great, really. Takes the pressure off of Louis to start a conversation. 

 

_'Tomlinson, you go and meet Harry Styles and suddenly you stop talking to me. rude.' -Eleanor_

Louis sighs, staring at the message and figuring out what smart remark he wanted to use on her. There were far too many and he didn't have the time or effort to use all of them. Especially not when there was another text from Harry in another window that he needed to read seeing as it involved concert tickets and other important things.

 

Most of the friends, okay no, not most,  _all_  of the friends he had made online were female. The only exception being Harry, but he didn't really mind. He had always gotten on better with girls than guys, but that may have just been because when he came out in school, the majority of the footie team was afraid he'd accidentally turn them gay just by changing in the same locker room. That had been an interesting year on the team, really.

 

He didn't mind it, though, not that he should. He didn't really talk to most of them a lot, only a couple. There was Eleanor, who was probably one of the first bloggers he had started talking to on there. She was kind and sweet and was usually the first person he'd talk to whenever Harry was on the verge of ruining his life more than he already had. Of course, she had been on there longer than him and had a group of her own friends, so Louis sort of just pushed his way through and there he was, being accepted with open arms. There was Natalie, who he was certain was slowly turning into a Liam Payne blog and he felt slight betrayed that she would go and blog about his competition. Besides that, she was fine. Hit post limit a lot, but still cool. There was this girl named Brittany too, and as much as she denied it, he was pretty sure she had a crush on Niall, but he ignored it for the time being. Mostly because he didn't need Niall's ego to be boosted anymore than it already was. He should set them up in the future, though. He could do without Niall asking him to be a wingman. 

 

There were other girls too, and as much as he loved them oh so dearly, being able to talk to Harry was different. Harry kind of understood more, even if he wasn't into what Louis was into. Well, that's a lie. Him and Harry have a lot in common, it's just the whole "I'm in love with Harry Styles" thing that they don't agree on. Or maybe Harry is in love with Harry Styles and just doesn't want anyone to know. Either way, he enjoyed talking to Harry a bit more than his other friends.

 

' _im sorry, harry fell in love with me and we've been secretly seeing each other behind liam's back. its time consuming, you know, sneaking around with a famous popstar.' -Louis_  


He smirks lightly as he clicks send, then hurriedly redirects himself to Harry's message, reading the message in disbelief.

 

_'ive got this friend, yeah? he works for harry, kinda. could totally get you tickets.' -Harry_

His Harry has connections to Harry Styles, who was probably his soul mate, but that pushed aside,  _he had connections._  More importantly, he probably had concert tickets too and Lottie was going to flip when he told her, but that's not what matters. What matters is that he could probably go, seeing as he accepted the offer. does he or does he not take the tickets? Would that be weird? 

 

_'AND YOU DIDNT MENTION THIS FRIEND BEFORE. what else have you been keeping from me, eh?' -Louis_

Alright, so, he had about two months to decide whether or not he wanted to take Harry up on the tickets offer. He probably should, seeing as he could also use this to meet  _his_  Harry as well, because well, he wasn't gonna go with Niall. He could take Lottie, but then he'd have to watch her the entire time and that'd just put too much stress on him. Then again, she'd kill him if she found out she went without him, so maybe he would take her. But whatever, he was still gonna make Harry go with him if he decided to take the tickets and the other boy had no say. He was going to meet Harry whether the other boy liked it or not.

 

_'didn't come up. the tour's in May though, we should meet up before then.' -Harry_

And there it was. The message that Louis had been waiting for since he had first started to talking to Harry. It's not like he hasn't brought it up, he has plenty of times, only Harry always seemed to have a different excuse as to why he couldn't so Louis never pressed the matter. Except this time it was  _Harry_  instigating, and well, who was Louis to say no to someone willing to get him Harry Styles tickets?

 

_'it's about time, Harry. was beginning to think you were cat fishing me....are you?' -Louis_

 

He sends back, sitting down on his bed and opening his laptop. His dashboard was practically empty, seeing as Harry was on break for now and it was getting boring. Well, there were pictures every once in a while, but besides that, it was just slow and boring, having to reblog the same old pictures. The tour should come faster, if you asked Louis.

 

_'definitely not cat fishing you. just being a twat and not being brave enough to meet with you.' -Harry_

Well that was a slightly less amusing answer he was expecting, but oh well, he got what he wanted and he wasn't going to argue. 

 

* * *

"Hey Zayn, did I mention that you're the worst best friend I've ever had?" Harry growls, staring at his phone and hoping that if he looks long enough the messages will disappear. Except an entire minute passes and it's still there, and he's actually going to kill Zayn. 

 

"Once or twice." Zayn mutters from next to him, scrolling through his own phone and paying almost no attention to whatever Harry was going on about. Harry had simply asked him to text Louis and he did. He didn't tell him what to text and that was his fault.

 

Harry scoffs, smacking Zayn's arm and staring at him in disbelief. "I'm being serious, Zayn. Do you know what you did?" 

 

"Yes. You're meeting lover boy and maybe now you'll finally shut up about him."

 

"You're a twat." Harry says, rolling his eyes and tossing his phone to the side, deciding he'd just stop texting Louis back. There was nothing he could do, now. That was the last time he let Zayn solve any of his problem. He was starting to miss Zayn acting more like a manager. "Get me out of this, Malik."

 

"Mm, can't do that. Already have a set date." Zayn replies, smirking.

 

Harry shakes his head. "I didn't see one in the messages."

 

Zayn shakes his phone in Harry's face and grins. "Who do you think I've been texting on my phone, mate."

 

"Suck a dick."

 

"Is there a specific one you want me to suck or do I get to choose?"

 

Harry narrows his eyes at him, fighting the urge to grab Zayn's phone and tell him it was all just a joke. Oh god, Zayn's got his number now. Who know what they could talk about. Zayn could just flat out tell him without Harry knowing. He might as well. 

 

"You're not funny."

 

"Louis thinks I'm hilarious."

 

"Well Harry thinks you should suck a dick."

 

Zayn smirks, clicking his tongue. "Talking about yourself in the third person is what got you into this mess in the first place."

 

"No,  _you_  got me into this mess. Therefore, you need to go suck a dick. Liam won't mind volunteering, I'm sure."

 

"Oi, shut up, Styles." Harry grins, patting Zayn's shoulder and standing up. "It's not that big a deal, you've got a month. What are you even afraid of?"

 

Harry sighs, shaking his head and ignoring Zayn's question. There were a lot of things he was afraid. The first being, well, he doesn't really know, but he's sure nothing gonna go right. Zayn should have just left it alone, honestly. 

 

"Harry, don't ignore me." Zayn says. "Louis already thinks you're cool, then again, might change when he meets you. Alright, I see what you're worried about." He teases, shoving Harry's arm playfully and standing up. Harry rolls his eyes, picking his phone up and questioning whether or not he should read the new message from Louis. "I'm gonna head home, alright? Don't worry about Louis or whatever."

 

"Yeah yeah, bye Malik." Harry mumbles, lazily waving and keeping his eyes on his locked phone screen as Zayn left. He was so screwed.

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis isn't a fan of popstars. Unless the popstar has curly hair, green eyes, and is named Harry Styles. He really likes that popstar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i took forever with this, sorry:/, but ive got it up now so wooooo:)
> 
> un-beta'd, but i think i did alright going through, so all mistakes are mine!

Louis spends the next week trying to persuade Niall to go with him to meet his Harry. It's hard, though, seeing as Niall's using the excuse that Louis's already got him obsessed with Harry Styles the last time he went on a trip to London with him. There was no way he was going to be subject to Louis's trips, whether the reason was someone famous or not. Unless of course, there was a nice girl involved, that'd probably get him to go. But from his knowledge, Louis's Harry wasn't a girl, so there went that.

 

"You love me, therefore you're gonna go." Louis says, nudging Niall's arm and setting his laptop on his lap. Niall sits next to him on the bed, crossing his legs and peering over at Louis's laptop screen. Louis hadn't exactly convinced him to make a blog yet, but he was getting there. Lottie had been helping him as well. Life would just be a lot better if Niall understood Louis's obsession with Harry Styles. "What if he's a murderer? You can't let me go alone."

 

"If he's a murderer, then I'll make sure to ask Harry Styles to play at your funeral. Like a good best friend would." Niall responds, taking his eyes off of Louis's laptop and taking out his phone. Niall was a smart ass. Louis would blame himself, but that'd be admitting he was at fault and to be completely honest, he didn't feel like admitting that to Niall yet. "By the way, can I borrow your albums?"

 

Louis smirks, shaking his head and leaning over to reach under the bed. He grabs the albums, sitting up and handing them to Niall, who refused to make eye contact. "I knew I'd corrupt you one day."

 

"Shut up Tommo." Niall warns, sighing and setting the albums aside. "This is your fault." Which is partially true, but again, Louis refuses to admit fault. And technically speaking, it was Lottie that got him into this mess, so in fact, it wasn't his fault, but it was his sisters. That's what sisters are there for, right? To pin the blame on them when you don't want to deal with the consequences? That's what he had learn. And if that weren't the case, then, well, he owed Lottie and Fizzy a few apologies. Not now, though. He was too busy blaming them for thing he's caused. He'll do it later, maybe when they get married or rich and he needs something from them. That sounds about right.

 

"No it's not. It was only a matter of time before you were also reeled in. Blame Lottie." He clicks his tongue, earning a glare from Niall. Niall was in such a snippy mood, Louis didn't like it. He was supposed to be the  "Anyways, you should come with me. It's gonna be in London again."

 

Niall rolls his eyes and shakes his head. "Why do you need me to go?" 

 

"He said he's bringing one of his friends. I thought I might as well bring one of mine." Louis says, placing a hand on Niall's shoulder. "C'mon, it'll be great." He really just didn't want to go alone. He was nervous and anxious, afraid that Harry wouldn't like him if they'd met in person. He thought he had outgrown that stage where he gives a shit what everyone thinks, but apparently you still have insecurities at twenty two and he hated it. Him and Harry got along fine from all of their texts and messages, but would it be different in person? Maybe Harry would finally realize how obnoxious he really was, or maybe he'd say the wrong thing at the wrong time and offend him. He can't go to London on his own, not when there was the slight chance that Harry wouldn't even like him. 

 

"Louis, your phone went off." Niall says, snapping him out of his thoughts. He smiles weakly, grabbing his phone from in between the two of them and reading a message from Harry. IT was weird at first, not having a picture for Harry's contact. He was going to keep it blank, but then Niall went and grabbed his phone, taking one of Louis's pictures of Harry Styles and set it as that as a joke. He had been meaning to change it, but he didn't really have any other pictures to replace it with, so he left it there. He'd change it when they met, though. No doubt they were going to take millions of pictures together.

 

_'the week of April 1st, then? Is that fine? the week after, ive got work.' -Harry_

 

"Week of April first. Think you can get off work?" Louis pleads, sticking out his bottom lip and placing a hand on Niall's arm. "You'd be the best friend in the world."

 

Niall lets out a prolonged sigh, then faces Louis and nods. "Whatever, yeah, fine. I'll try to get off. If I can't then you're on your own." Louis smiles, glad to see the pouting trick hasn't lost it's charm. He wonders if it would work on Harry, even though the two weren't as familiar with each other as Louis. It probably would, no one could resist Louis's pout. It's how he got away with most of the things he did when he was younger. His sisters hated it.

 

"You, Niall Horan, are fantastic." Louis grins, taking his hand off of Niall and redirecting himself back to his conversation with Harry. "Now, help me get ready for this stupid date with Nick." He mumbles, moving his laptop off of him and getting up from the bed. He stands in front of his closet, staring aimlessly at his clothes. He had far too many t-shirts and he's pretty sure he always ends up wearing the same five anyways. He probably had too many shoes as well, but that was a problem for another day. Today's problem was trying to figure out what to where on a date you really didn't care about. He didn't think he'd have to do this again after the first time.

 

"The purple sweater, or whatever the hell it is."

 

"It's  _burgundy_ , Niall." Louis scoffs, grabbing the sweater out of his closet and showing it to Niall. "Does that look purple to you?" Niall rolls his eyes, waving his hand dismissively and returning to his phone. He stares at it for a couple of seconds before tossing it to the side and grabbing Louis's laptop. "What are you doing?" 

 

Niall glances up at him before shrugging and looking through Louis's dash. "M'bored." He mumbles. Louis rolls his eyes, pulling the sweater over his head and grabbing a pair of black jeans from his dresser. 

 

"So you're just gonna invade my blog, alright, thanks man." He replies, pulling on his jeans and grabbing this phone from his night stand. "Hey, do me a favor," He starts, scrolling through the notifications on his phone. "blog for me."

 

"What? No." Niall says, shaking his head and setting Louis's laptop back to where it had been set before. Louis sighs, looking around the room for his shoes. 

 

"It's simple, just look at posts and pictures of Harry, then reblog them." Louis explains, checking the time and groaning. "Gotta go. Be back by ten, maybe. Don't ruin my blog." He warns, shoving his phone in his pocket and hurrying out of his flat.

 

* * *

 

 

Planning isn't something that Harry's good at. He can organize like hell, but he doesn't plan. No,  _Zayn_  plans. Harry just sits back and organizes all of the things that Zayn plans. It's a team effort. 

 

Also, Liam's back in the UK, and coincidentally, Zayn's invited him to meet meet Louis with them. He doesn't know why, considering Liam knows next to nothing about Louis or how they met, or basically anything, but he doesn't question it. This was obviously Zayn's desperate attempt at getting Liam's attention and he was going to be a good friend and not ruin Zayn's chances. He really should, seeing as it's Zayn's fault Harry has to go through this thing with meeting Louis anyways, but no. He will not sabotage a friend's chance at getting laid. It's like, in the bro code, or something like that. Harry doesn't remember nor does he care.

 

Zayn gives him the week of the first off to meet Louis, so that gives him approximately three weeks until He has to step up and reveal himself to Louis. It seems like a long time, but with the way things go with him and everything around him, it'll go by quickly and all of a sudden Louis will be right in front of him, confused and surprised. It could either end in them continuing their friendship the same they had online, or with Louis being as nervous and starstuck as he had been when they met unofficially at the airport. He was hoping for the latter and if that wasn't the result, he was going to kill Zayn.

 

"Tell me about Louis, then." Liam says, crossing his arms on the table and leaning forward. Zayn suggested the three of them going out for lunch at some new place that had opened near Zayn's flat, and Harry honestly felt like a third wheel, regardless of whether or not Liam and Zayn were actually dating. 

 

Harry purses his lips and concentrates on his lemonade. Louis. Louis Louis Louis. Where does he start with Louis? There's a lot of things he could tell Liam about Louis. He could tell him about his personality, or how he's a huge fan, or maybe even about how pretty he is. Or you know, he could do all three and have an excuse to talk about Louis. Option number four was his favorite option. 

 

Zayn rolls his eyes as Harry stays silent, trapped in his own thoughts about what he was going to say about Louis. He might as well start from the beginning, telling Liam how him and Louis met. Only Zayn was there and Zayn  _still_  didn't know the full story, so he doesn't know if he should tell the fabricated version or the actual version and deal with Zayn's backlash later. Oh fuck it.

 

"We met on tumblr. I uh, sent him message because one of his posts showed up on my dashboard. Not my type of blog style, but it was funny and he's funny so why not?" He begins, fumbling with his fingers and staring blankly at the table as he continued. "Right, my blog is a photography blog. His is a blog for, well, me. He doesn't know it's me, though. Or well, he knows my name is Harry, but he doesn't know that I'm the Harry that he's dedicated his blog to." 

 

Liam nods, seeming genuinely interested while Zayn raises an eyebrow, narrowing his eyes and leaning forward. "I thought you found him through your tag?" He asks. Harry shrugs, leaning back and crossing his arms. "You didn't tell me you had a blog." 

 

"Oops?" He says sheepishly, grinning innocently and ignoring the dirty looks he was beginning to receive from Zayn. "Anyways, Louis's great. Funny lad, he is. He's twenty two, yeah? But he doesn't act like it, not at all. Or well, he does sometimes, but not usually. He's pretty, too. Really pretty. He's got blue eyes, no, not just blue. That makes them seem plain. He's got crystal blue eyes, and feathery brown hair and his lips are pink, and his nose is small and adorable and --" He stops when he realizes Zayn is laughing, looking down at his hands and seeing that he had starting talking with them, getting much more into the description than he had originally intended to. 

 

Liam's compassionate though, nudging Zayn and gesturing for Harry to continue. Harry likes Liam, he thinks he'll keep him around. "But um, yeah. Louis's great." He finishes, putting his hands down in his lap and biting his lip. 

 

"Sounds like a nice lad. Excited to meet him." Liam says, smiling. Harry grins weakly, nodding. "How do you think he'll react when you meet?"

 

"Not sure. Normal, I hope. I mean, it'll probably be hard for him not to, but he wasn't too bad at the airport, right?"

 

Zayn shakes his head, still trying to keep from laughing. Harry sighs, slouching a bit. "He was fine, Harry." Zayn reassures. "He's not gonna, like, freak out on you or anything. I think."

 

"Thanks Zayn. That makes me feel so much better." Harry mocks, sticking his tongue out for added effects. 

 

"It will be fine. He's twenty two, not some fifteen year old girl."

 

"Yeah, but --"

 

Zayn clicks his tongue. "Nope. You're not backing out. No matter how nervous or anxious you are." Harry groans and lays his head on the table, plotting of all the ways he could get back at Zayn for this. Liam laughs, shaking Harry's curls with his hand.

 

"It's alright, Harry. M'sure Louis's gonna love you." Liam tells him. Harry just lets out another noise, looking up briefly to speak.

 

"But that's the problem. What if he likes me  _too_  much. And not how I want him to. But like,  _what if he fangirls_?" Harry says the last part quietly, as if he were ashamed of saying the word. Zayn stares at him blankly, blinking a few times before barking out a laugh and shaking his head in disbelief. Harry glares at him, putting his head down and discreetly flipping him off. 

 

"Hey Zayn," Harry mumbles. "fuck you. I'm replacing you with Liam." He glances up, scooting himself over so he was sat in front of Liam. "Congrats Payne, you're my new best mate. My old one is a dick." 

 

Zayn scoffs, crossing his arms. "Rude." He mutters under his breath as Liam shakes his head and smiles. "I'll replace you with Louis. I'll even text him now."

 

Harry gasps, sitting up completely straight and grabbing his phone from out of his pocket. "Not if I text him first." He challenges, opening his messages with Louis and attempting to type faster that Zayn, who had a smirk planted on his face and his phone in his hands. Liam looked between the two, rolling his eyes and sitting back, watching them both text Louis.

 

"Ha! I sent it first!" Harry exclaims, setting his phone down on the table and giving Zayn a victorious glance. 

 

_'whatever Z is about to send you, don't listen to him. he's a wanker.' -Harry_

Zayn stops writing, taking Harry's phone from the table and reading the message. "You're ridiculous." He says, giving back Harry's phone and finishing his message to Louis before sending it off and placing it on the table as well. Harry smirks, relaxing back in the booth and waiting for a reply from Louis.

 

* * *

Louis hates movies. No, that's a lie. He likes movies, he hates watching movies with people he doesn't like. For example, Nick Grimshaw. 

 

A movie date. It was simple enough that Louis wouldn't have to talk, meaning he would say something to may him feel bad for it afterwards and everything would go smoothly. He'd stop getting asked out and then he can go to London and Harry Styles will fall in love with him and that will be the end of that.

 

To be completely honest, Louis doesn't even know what movie their watching. It's probably based off some popular book that he hasn't read, but the male lead is fucking attractive so he'll sit still and enjoy it. The plot line is pretty alright too, and there's a bit of action-y stuff and a lot of sexual tension and romance, and Louis finds himself paying more attention to it than he had originally intended to. He even decides to pick up the books at the library at some point and attempt to read them. Except, he'll probably end up setting them on his nightstand and forgetting about them a week before they're due back. It's the thought that counts, really.

 

The movie ends about an hour later and Louis's relieved and tired that he can finally just go home and not have to deal with this Nick thing again. No more pity dates, or awkward conversations at work which end with Louis wandering the store in hopes of being somewhere far away from the section Nick was in. 

 

"Right, well, that was good movie, I suppose." Louis shrugs as they walk out of the theater. He had since turned his phone back on and it was vibrating like mad in his back pocket. It was probably from Harry or Niall, Niall probably done something on his blog and about to complain about that being the reason he doesn't sign up for the stupid website. Harry only because he hadn't talked to him for almost the entire day and that was a new record for the both of them.

 

"Wasn't exactly the Harry Styles movie, but I'm glad you liked it." Nick jokes and Louis smiles a bit, pulling his phone out of his pocket and unlocking it. Now all he had to do was focus on work and his next trip to London, no more dates or movies based on books where the male character was the only reason Louis paid any attention.

 

"Now that was cinematic genius." Louis smiles, reading through his message notifications. He's gotten mostly messages from Harry, a couple from Niall and one or two from Lottie about the tour. He told her he'd take her if it turned out that Niall and Harry didn't want to go, and it was beginning to look that way. Harry said he was busy the night of and Niall refuses to go just because he feels he's going to like Harry even more if he goes. Louis doesn't have the heart to tell him that there's no escape.

 

' _another date? you sure you don't like the guy?' -Harry_  


Louis snorts at the message, glancing quickly up at Nick before looking back at his phone and typing back a reply. 

 

' _hilarious. more your type i think. you've got that hipster thing going on, right?' -Louis_  


Which of course he did, he was a hipster blog. Louis doesn't even  _know_  what Harry looks like, for all he knows, Harry could be the biggest hipster on the planet. He could wear  _flower crowns_. What if Harry was a girl? Harry could be short for Harriet or something like that. Harry could  _totally_  be a girl and he wouldn't have even noticed. He just went and assumed that Harry was a boy, when in fact, Harry could be a girl who's all hipster with high waisted shorts and see through shirts with unnecessary crosses on them.

 

' _you've offended me. is he attractive, at least? on a scale of max george to dylan obrien, how attractive is he?' -Harry_  


_'like, liam payne.' -Louis_

_'give me his number then' -Harry_

_'how do you even think liam payne is that good looking. like okay, he's got the justin timberlake thing going on, but he's just not at that level. -Louis_

_'youre kidding. we cant be friends. this friendship cannot be continued.' -Harry_

Louis barks out a laugh, shaking his head and looking up at Nick, whose staring at him with a baffle expression. Louis realizes he had been laughing out loud to himself and probably seems insane. What if he did that when he met Harry? Harry would probably think he's mental and not want to talk to him anymore. He's gotta stop doing that before then. "Hey, I'm gonna head home. See you at work tomorrow." He waves bye to Nick and walks off towards his car.

 

* * *

 

_'2 more weeks!!!! :)' -Louis_

Harry smiles, except on the inside he's reminding himself to kill Zayn for getting him into this mess. What Zayn hasn't realized, is that now he's going to be distracted all through out his rehearsals. Louis would be there when he actually started rehearsals, and he'd probably get distracted and it'd mess everything up. Or Louis would go to rehearsals with him and accidentally leak information he shouldn't leak, therefore getting Harry in trouble with his management team and Louis would probably be banned from seeing Harry every again and it was all a huge complicated mess of things and he was going to kill Zayn.

 

Only it would be nice to have Louis there, have someone who isn't paid to be there and genuinely enjoys being around. Not that Zayn doesn't enjoy being around, but he has to be at every rehearsal and Harry figures it gets boring when you're not the one actually rehearsing. Hell, Harry gets bored a lot of the time, and he's the one doing most of the work. He won't complain though, all comes with the job and the dream and everything else that has to do with it.

 

But anyways, Louis being there could be a good thing, and maybe Zayn was really doing him a favor. Louis had no idea what he was getting into, though, and it was intimidating for Harry to not be able to tell what reaction Louis could possibly have when they met. Would he stay quiet and act shocked but go with it all at the same time? Would he act like he did at the airport, only a bit more flustered because he's found out who Harry  _actually_  was. There were so many different reactions that Louis could have and Harry was scared of the majority of them. There was a small hope that Louis would just be normal, take the information easily and move on like it wasn't a big deal, but that was a long shot and even he knew Louis couldn't be that calm and collected.

 

_'can't wait:)' -Harry_

He sends the message, locking his phone and grabbing his laptop from the edge of his bed. Two weeks until Louis found out who he actually was. Two weeks until this thing makes or breaks their friendship. Two weeks until he decides whether or not murdering Zayn would be worth it or not. He thinks it probably will be, but he might as well make sure.

 

Everything's boring now. He can't stop thinking of the events that are coming up and he doesn't want to do anything except sit and wait for it to come around. Zayn and Liam have been hanging out with him, mostly Liam just so they could be seen together a lot more, but Zayn will come and join them sometimes when the cameras aren't around just because Harry wants to him to be there. Liam's great and all, but it's just better to have Zayn there so he feels some sense of familiarity. 

 

Whenever all three of them hang out together, though, Harry finds himself on his phone with Louis while Zayn and Liam talk Marvel heroes and other things that they've got in common. Harry fells like he should be jealous that Liam's got so much more in common with his best friend, but he sits back and chats to Louis all while sending Zayn knowing glances. 

 

But then it's days like these when he doesn't have any plans and doesn't really have anyone to talk to because Louis has work and Zayn is off doing whatever it is he does and Liam's gotta do some type of promo interview, so Harry's all on his own with his laptop and the quiet. He doesn't mind the alone part, or even the quiet part, it's nice to get some time to himself, but he's just so bored and he doesn't want to actually go anywhere so he's got nothing to do except blog and listen to his music as loudly as he pleases. 

 

He could always go out later that night, but then it'd make the news and there'd be rumors of him cheating on Liam and it'd all just cause some huge shit storm that him and Zayn didn't need to deal with so he'd much rather just stay home and play it safe. 

 

He ends up watching a few movies on his own, shamelessly watching Love Actually and a few other romance movies Zayn refuses to watch with him whenever he's over. He wonders if Louis like romance movies, or if he;s more of a mystery and horror person. Louis seems like the type to watch more comedy than romance, but then again, you never really know with some people. Like, he wouldn't have pegged Louis as the type to listen to his music, but here they were.

 

To be completely honest, there's a lot of things Harry wonders about Louis. How popular he was in school, if he had anything else he was passionate about, secret talents and hobbies, and just any quirks about himself that know one else really noticed but Harry  _would_  because he wants to know these things. Louis just seems like such an interesting person and Harry  _really_  wanted to see what he was like in person. 

 

Now he was a bit more excited for the upcoming two weeks and maybe he should thank Zayn, but then again, that'd be admitting defeat and he wasn't ready for that yet.

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis isn't a fan of popstars. Unless the popstar has curly hair, green eyes, and is named Harry Styles. He really likes that popstar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i took a really long time with this and its not even that long, BUT HOPEFULLY WHAT HAPPENS IS WORTH IT, SO SORRY AGAIN.
> 
> Un-beta'd, all mistakes are mine!!!

Louis hates packing with a burning passion. Almost as much as he hates how useless Niall is when he's packing. He needs a new best friend, one that's far more useful than the one that he has now. Maybe if the meeting Harry thing works out, he can simply replace Niall with Harry and everything would work out the same. Niall could go in Harry's place and Harry's best mate could deal with his Irish ass. He'd probably give him back as soon as Niall opened his mouth to speak, honestly. The filter Niall had was non-existent and Louis thinks he's the only one that can tolerate it.

 

"Why are you already packed?" Louis complains as he searches through his closet, glancing back at Niall who was laying on his bed and going through Louis's laptop. This had become a thing since last time, whenever Louis had something to do, Niall would sit on his laptop and blog things for him. Sometimes he'd talk to his friends too, and Louis's pretty sure he was flirting with a few of them, but as long as he was getting Niall into it, he wouldn't complain. Except for now when Niall was clearly to busy on Louis's account to help him with something urgent. Niall was useless. 

 

"Because I don't procrastinate." Niall answers and Louis flips him the finger before grabbing a t-shirt and tossing it into his half full (or half empty? He couldn't bring himself to be pessimistic) suitcase. "We're gonna be there for what, one week? Two at the most? You wear the same five t-shirts, anyways." 

 

Louis sighs, shaking his head and pulling a sweater off of a hanger and throwing it in. He's never been one for proper packing. As long as it all fits, it's good to go. "Useless, you are." He mutters, taking out a few more shirts and throwing them inside of his suitcase. There. He had eight t-shirts and eight sweaters, which was probably too many, but he needed choices while he was seeing Harry and he was trying to dress to impress. His usual Vans t-shirt and hoodie wouldn't cut it this time, so he had to choose the best outfits he could find in his closet. It wasn't really much, since most of his shirts were worn out, but he managed.

 

"Love you too." Niall dramatically blows him a kiss. Louis rolls his eyes, pulling out a few pairs of skinny jeans from his drawer and throwing them in as well. There. Packed. Well, almost. He just needed his toothbrush and stuff for the trip, and then he'd be completely packed for Harry's. His Harry. The one he's going to meet tomorrow. Whose house he'll staying at for at least week (Harry's best mate  _persisted_  they stay two weeks, but Louis wasn't sure how well things would go, so it's a maybe). Harry.

 

"What's the point of you even being here right now?" Louis mumbles, sitting on top of his suitcase and looking for the zipper. "Come close my bag." He orders. Niall sighs, setting Louis's laptop aside and getting up to help the older boy with his bag. Louis crosses his legs, smiling as Niall zipped the case. "Thanks." 

 

Niall shrugs, walking back to the bed and sitting on the edge. "I don't know why you're nervous," He says, taking hold of Louis's laptop again. Louis needs to remind him that he has his own laptop, but whatever. "It's just Harry." 

 

" _No,_  you're just Niall," Louis responds, getting off of his bag and sitting beside Niall. Niall's going to have him on post limit by the evening. "Stop reblogging things, I need to blog during the drive there." Niall rolls his eyes, handing Louis back his laptop. "Stop flirting with my internet friends." He mutters when he checks his inbox, reading through the messages between Niall and his other friends. No fucking wonder Niall spent so much time on Louis's laptop. It was ridiculous, no, Niall was ridiculous. The only person that should be getting laid because of his blog was Louis. 

 

"It's not my fault I'm naturally charming," Niall defends. "It's the Irish accent."

 

"You're typing."

 

"I'm typing with an Irish accent," Niall grins, clapping a hand on Louis's back and grabbing his own laptop from his already packed suitcase. They were set to leave in the morning and normally Louis would be dreading leaving so early, but this was to meet Harry so he'll suck it up and deal with it. "She likes it." He says, pointing to one of the blogs, which happens to be Eleanor's.

 

Louis gasps dramatically, hugging his laptop to his chest and pushing Niall away. "You stay away from her. She's my second favorite." He scolds and Niall raises an eyebrow, but raises his hands in surrender. "What if he's cute, Niall?" Louis asks with a sigh. "What if he somehow thinks you're more attractive than me?"

 

"Oi! Don't be rude"

"Well let's face it Niall, I'm the prettier one," Louis shrugs, shutting his laptop and setting it aside. Harry's seen him in pictures before, yeah, but everyone looks good in pictures. It's the angle they're taken in and whatnot. In person is a completely different. Unless you're Harry Styles, because apparently you look good in pictures and in person, and Louis doesn't really think that's fair, but he's not going to complain right now. 

 

Niall rolls his eyes, shoving Louis's shoulder. "Go get me take out and maybe I'll pretend you didn't say that," He compromises. Louis scoffs, crossing his arms and looking over at Niall's laptop screen.

 

"Only because you kind of helped me pack," Louis stands from the bed, grabbing his keys from his nightstand. "But actually, you're an asshole and I want a new best friend."

 

"You could never replace me," Niall points out. "No one else could deal with your stupid fucking Harry Styles obsession."

 

"My Harry thinks it's endearing," Louis mutters, slipping on his shoes, walking to his bedroom door and leaning against the door frame. 

 

"I bet your Harry is Harry Styles and he just thinks it'd be easier to get in your pants," Niall teases.

 

Louis scoffs. "Don't say things like that unless it's true," He warns, flipping Niall off before turning around and leaving his flat.

 

* * *

"He's gonna be here in two hours."

 

"I know, Harry."

 

" _Two hours_ , Zayn."

 

"I'm glad you know how to tell time." Harry stops his pacing, turning to Zayn, who is sprawled across his sofa, and crossing his arms. "He's gonna know who you are in  _two hours_." Zayn says, mocking Harry and giving a mischievous grin. Harry ignores it for the time being, sliding his phone out of his pocket and seeing another text message from Louis.

 

  
_'two hours!!!!!' -_ Louis

 

Two hours. Harry's cleaned his flat as best as he could and he's still feeling slightly pressured, but he can't really do anything about it. Zayn's on the sofa, Liam's on his way and  _Louis's going to be there in two hours._  There's too many things happening at once for him to process it and he only has two hours to figure out whether he's going to kill Zayn or give him a pay raise. Does he even have that sort of power? He'll figure it out. 

 

"Also, not trying to sound even more like a dick, but if you're gonna get laid, please remember that you have a boyfriend," Zayn reminds him and Harry rolls his eyes. He has a boyfriend. Kind of. Liam's his boyfriend. In a way. He didn't realize how much he hated this PR-relationship thing until now, but it doesn't even matter, because him and Louis are  _friends_  and that's all. Louis doesn't even know who he is, properly at least, so like, nothing's going to happen and Zayn needs to stop being such an asshole in Harry's home. It's not proper house-guest behavior, honestly.

 

"Shut up, Zayn," He mumbles, typing a quick reply to Louis. "You're the one that's gonna end up sleeping with my  _boyfriend_ ," He scoffs, smirking knowingly and sending Zayn a wink. 

 

' _is it weird that im nervous? because im really nervous.'_  -Harry

 

And he is, he honestly and truly is. He doesn't think he's ever felt so nervous in his life and for fucks sake, he's sang for the  _Queen._  Meeting Louis is on a higher level than meeting and performing than the Queen of England and if that isn't terrifying, then Harry doesn't know what to be scared of anymore. 

 

"Don't be nervous. If anyone should be nervous, it should be him," Zayn tells him, sitting up straight and pointing an accusatory finger at the pop star. "Like, he's going into this with no fucking information about you except for your name is Harry and you live in London. You could be a serial killer, for all he knows."

 

"I am  _not_  a serial killer. I would've murdered you by now, if I was." 

 

"Lies. You'd miss me too much," Zayn smirks. "And who else would sit with you during your teenage girl moments when you eat ice cream and marathon Teen Wolf--"

 

"I swear, if you mention any of that to Louis," Harry warns, shaking his head and sliding his phone back in his pocket. Two hours. He had two more hours and Liam hadn't arrived with take out yet, Zayn is being a dick (but that's nothing different) and there's other things, but he's still nervous about what could happen by the time Louis gets there. And then there's what could happen while Louis's there, and he's just a huge mess of nerves.

 

Zayn laughs, shaking his head and checking his phone for any word from Liam. "I won't, maybe. Or, I can sit with his best mate and swap stupid stories," Harry flips him off, letting out an aggravated grunt and leaving the living room in favor of taking a shower before Louis arrived.

 

* * *

  
_'proper posh, are you?'_  -Louis

 

Harry glances over the message, freezing for a minute before checking the time and scrambling off of the sofa. Liam and Zayn glance up from where they're practically engulfing the other ("You and I do this all the time, Harry." "Yeah, but it never ended with my dick in your mouth, which this will probably end with Liam's in yours."), Liam giving a warm smile while Zayn just gives a taunting glance. Harry's going to replace Zayn with Liam, one day. He means it, too. 

 

"Your lover's arrived, Harold!" Zayn yells just as the buzzer for the front gate goes off. Harry narrows his eyes at Zayn, then dramatically takes a deep breath and goes to buzz Louis and Niall in. He goes off to the front door, standing in front of it until the doorbell is rung and there's no time to back out now. Louis's there, behind the door, waiting for him to answer it.

 

"Harry, open the fucking door!" Zayn calls from the living room and Harry sighs, grabbing a hold of the door handle. Now or never, he can't keep Louis (and also Niall) waiting out there forever. 

 

He bites his lip, opening the door (which some unnecessary cheering from Zayn) and standing face to face with a distracted Louis Tomlinson. "Jesus Harry, how the fuck do you even  _afford_  this?" He says, looking up at Harry's flat and not yet laying his eyes on Harry. Niall's on his phone. "What kind of job do you have--" He stops when he looks at Harry, mouth still open from mid-sentence and shock. "What."

 

"Oops?" Harry tries, scratching the back of his neck and smiling weakly.

 

"Hi." Louis breathes, letting out a breath that he didn't even know he was holding in. Harry, his Harry, was in fact, Harry Styles. "You're--"

 

"Yeah."

 

Niall, who's looked up from his phone and is unfazed by everything, glances between the both of them and sighs. "Please tell me that his best mate is here, because these two are already eye-fucking and I don't want to deal with it alone." He yells to no one in particular, shoving his phone away in his pocket and crossing his arms. Zayn and Liam appear at the door way, Zayn seeming amused and Liam just as kind as he always seems. Niall takes one glance at Liam and pauses. "No, I mean, totally not eye-fucking. Definitely not. Because that'd be weird, with you being his boyfriend and everything."

 

Liam arches an eyebrow, confused for a moment before he looks towards Harry and smiles. "Right, yeah. It's fine, mate." He reassures. Niall lets out a breath of relief. "Liam," Liam extends a hand to Niall, which Niall takes and shakes gently. 

 

"Niall. That's Louis, but I don't think he's capable of speaking right now." He looks to Zayn, who's currently shoving Harry's arm and attempting to get him to speak, but to no avail. "Zayn, right?"

 

Zayn nods, giving up on Harry and grabbing Louis's bag so he could carry it to one of the guest rooms. "They're ridiculous. You'd think they haven't met people before." 

 

Niall shrugs, picking up his own bag and following Zayn and Liam inside of Harry's flat. "You two, converse, exchange words." He mumbles, giving Louis a look before he goes inside. 

 

Harry clears his throat as soon as the other three are out of earshot, standing straight and shoving his hands in his pockets. Louis blinks a couple of times, not sure of what to say or do in a situation like this. He's standing in front of his celebrity crush, about to stay in his flat for a  _week_ , maybe even two if all goes well. This, though, is also the same person that he's told he was practically in love with and fuck. He's told Harry Styles everything he thinks about him, Harry must think he's some sort of stalker right now. Wait, no, then he wouldn't have invited him to his flat. He's really confused and embarrassed all at the same time.

 

"I didn't mean it," Is the first thing Louis can think to say and Harry gives him a puzzled look. "The things I said to you...about you. Didn't mean them."

 

"We both know that's a lie." Harry says with a smile and Louis laughs softly. "I wouldn't have invited you if I cared, though," He adds quickly. Louis grins sheepishly. Harry thinks it's adorable.

 

"So what's the pop star protocol for entering their home?" Louis begins. "Am I supposed to bow or summat?"

 

Harry chuckles, shaking his head and moving aside so Louis can enter. Louis does so, taking in the fact that he's in Harry Styles's flat right now, about to spend a week or so with him. He doesn't know how he got to this point, but he doesn't think anything like this will ever happen again so he'll go with it. "So," Louis says. "Harry Styles."

 

"Louis Tomlinson." Harry replies in the same tone of voice. 

 

"Don't mock me," Louis pouts, crossing his arms. "I am allowed to be shocked."

 

"Of course," Harry tells him. He smiles too, and Louis has to remember how Liam Payne is in the other room and it'd be rude to kiss his boyfriend without permission. 

 

"So is this why you wouldn't send selfies?" Louis asks. He really should've connected the dots, now that he thinks about it. His name being Harry and living in London should've been enough to give it away. How did he not notice everything, all the small facts and coincidences. It's all so obvious now, now that Harry's standing right in front of him. 

 

Harry nods, leaning against the door. "Sorry, though. For not telling you."

 

Louis waves his hand, as if to dismiss it. "No problem, mate. I mean, I can understand why you did it," He says. "Would've been nice to not let me embarrass myself, though." Harry laughs and Louis smiles, walking farther into Harry's flat, the younger boy following right behind him. Liam, Zayn and Niall are all sat on the sofa in the living room, one of Harry's dvds playing on the tv and Chinese take out on the coffee table. They've only been here five minutes. "Zayn, Liam, I'm expecting every funny story about Harry that I can't read in the Daily Mail," He tells them as he sits down next to Niall, the four of them sitting incredibly close together. Harry squeezes himself in between Louis and Liam and the five of them seem to kind of just fit, even though it's a bit tight, but no one's gonna admit it.

 

They watch the movie in silence for the first twenty minutes, drinking beer and eating take out. That is, until Harry begin making commentary through the movie and Louis joins him, both annoying and entertaining the boys beside them. 

 

"That's a shitty way to profess your love," Louis states as one of the main characters flashes on screen.

 

"I don't know," Harry mutters. "I think standing out in the rain for someone is pretty romantic." 

 

"What if you get sick?"

 

"If you were in love with someone, would you really care if they got you sick?"

 

"Well like, I'd have to call out of work and cancel plans. It'd all be so unnecessary," Louis points out. Harry purses his lips and shrugs. "Liam, would you stand out in the rain for Harry?" He asks, taking Liam off-guard. 

 

The younger boy glances between Harry and Louis and smiles softly, shrugging before looking back at the movie screen. "Liam," Harry says in a warning voice, looking at the lad with an offended expression. "I'm going to need a new boyfriend. One that will wait in the rain for me." Harry states, turning to Louis and smiling. Louis returns the favor, except Harry leans forward and looks to Niall. "Niall, you're my new boyfriend." 

 

"The fuck if I'll stand in the rain for you," Niall mutters and Harry pretends that he didn't hear it. 

 

Louis and Liam both scoff. "Fine then, I'll just go ahead and date Liam then." Louis reaches over and holds out his hand for a high five, which Liam gives. "We're dating now, see. We high fived."

 

"You said you didn't think he was--" Harry begins, referencing Louis's messages from weeks ago. Louis covers Harry's mouth with his hand and grins at Liam.

 

"Pop stars, don't know when to shut up," He says, giving Harry a look before taking his hand off of his mouth. Harry's pouting and wow, okay, Louis has to admit that seeing it up close is far cuter than just seeing gifs and videos of it online. Seeing Harry Styles up close is probably one of the best things that's happened to Louis in his twenty two years of life. But then again, his life isn't very exciting. 

 

Harry sticks his tongue out at Louis, ignoring all of the 'I told you so' looks Zayn keeps shooting him. Okay, maybe Zayn had been right about Louis not caring, but he's not going to admit that just yet. There was still plenty of time for him to do something, or for Harry to mess something up. And when one of those did happen, he'll be there to flip Zayn off. 

 

"It's my job not to shut up," Harry mutters, sitting back and crossing his arms. "They kissed!" He exclaims, pointing at the screen. All five of them cheer as the end credits begin to roll, Niall standing along with Liam and Zayn.

 

"Hey, Zayn's offered to let me stay at his," Niall says to Louis. "Just so you and Harry can get to know each other and all that friendship bullshit," 

 

Louis looks at Harry and he seems just as out of the loop as Louis is about this, but neither of them are about to protest. "Liam, are you fine with that?" Louis asks, because well, Harry  _is_  his boyfriend and it'd probably be weird, having someone stay with your boyfriend without you. Wouldn't it? Louis wouldn't really know, seeing as he's maybe had three boyfriends from when he was in school, and never really gave them much thought. But he assumes it'd be awkward, so he'll ask Liam anyways.

 

Liam and Harry exchange amused glances before Liam clears his throat and nods. "Yeah, completely fine with me," He tells Louis, giving a reassuring smile. Louis grins as well, grabbing on of the left over tubs of noodles and leaning back on the sofa. "We're gonna head out, though. Go to a bar or summat while you guys chill. You two okay with that?"

 

"S'cool," Louis says. Harry nods in agreement. "We're gonna be best mates by the end of the night," Louis wraps an arm around Harry's shoulders for added effects. Zayn and Niall roll there eyes, ignoring the two and beginning to walk to the front door. Liam says bye to both Louis and Harry before turning around and following the other two boys out, leaving Louis and Harry in silence.

 

"Lima's nice." Louis says, breaking the silence. 

 

"What?"

 

"Your boyfriend."

 

"Liam."

 

"That's what I said." Louis says with a straight face and Harry doesn't know whether to laugh or lean in and kiss him, but he's goes with the former to avoid any and all confusion. "Anyways, I like Zayn, too. Is Zayn single?" 

 

Harry wants to answer with " _no, but he's probably in love with my boyfriend, who's not actually my boyfriend",_ but that probably wouldn't be the best answer. "Yeah." He says that instead, smiling weakly. Louis doesn't notice. 

 

* * *

They spend the rest of the night watching cheesy romance movies and adding their commentary, finishing off the take out and drinking. Louis's laying on Harry's lap ("Don't tell Lima." "Liam." "I said that.") and he's probably drank more than he should've, but it's fine because he's with his celebrity crush and nothing could ruin that.

 

"Remember when i said I was going to try and seduce you," Louis brings up. He didn't mean to do it, but he's not in control of his mouth apparently, so it just comes out. 

 

Harry seems amused, so Louis's not going to hate himself for that slip up just yet. "I remember it vaguely, yeah." 

 

"I'm still planning on it." But he might hate himself for that one. "Except after you and Lima--"

 

"Liam."

 

"That's what I fucking said." Louis sighs, sitting up straight. Liam, fucking  _Liam._ Liam was a great fucking person and  _how_  was Louis supposed to hate him for being with Harry after singing how nice and kind he was. It wasn't fair, not at all. He was supposed to be acting like a teenage girl, hating Harry's boyfriend just because  _they_ got him and Louis didn't. It was completely unfair. "As I was saying, I'll seduce you after you and  _Liam_  stop dating or whatever. I am many things, Harry Styles. A home-wrecker is not one of them."

 

Harry laughs and Louis's confused, because he's trying to be serious right now and Harry's laughing at him. "Stop laughing at me, I already feel ridiculous." Louis complains. "This wasn't in my plan to seduce you, by the way." 

 

"Oh really?" Harry asks, arching an eyebrow. Louis nods, biting on his bottom lip. "What was in the plan, then?" 

 

"Well," Louis starts. "First off, my hair wouldn't look like shit," He mutters, running a hand though his hair instinctively. Harry grabs his hand, taking Louis by surprise. The older boy stares at his and Harry's hands, blinking a couple of time.

 

"You look amazing, Louis." Harry says quietly, smiling lazily. Louis stays quiet, not sure of what to say or do. "Look, Louis--"

 

Louis cuts him off, pressing his lips to Harry's without thinking. His tongue slides over Harry's bottom lip as the younger boy kisses back with just as much force. Harry let go of Louis's hand, his own two grabbing onto the other's waist and laying Louis down onto the sofa without parting their lips. Louis tangles his fingers in Harry's hair, shutting his eyes and enjoying how soft and smooth Harry's lips were, yet how rough the kiss was. 

 

Harry pulls a way a minute, his face flushed red when Louis opens his eyes and he can only assume his cheeks were the same. The both of them are breathing heavily and Harry leans back down to meet his lips with Louis's again, but Louis moves, letting out a sigh and shaking his head. "As much as I've been dreaming of getting laid by Harry Styles," He says, regaining his breath. "Lima--"

 

"Liam."

 

"Shut the fuck up about his name, okay?" Louis says, slightly annoyed. Harry chuckles, but stays silent so Louis can continue. "Anyways, Liam's nice and I don't want to be the dick that breaks up a celebrity power couple. Regardless of you two only having gone out for a month or so." 

 

"Right," Harry mumbles, sitting up so Louis can do the same. "So do we just..."

 

"Let's just not talk about it, yeah?" Louis gives a weak smile and Harry wants to respond with " _let's talk about it now, I'm not dating Liam.",_ except he can't do that because Zayn would have his head. So he nods in agreement, standing up from the sofa.

 

"i'm gonna head to bed, then. S'late." Harry mumbles. Louis nods, avoiding eye contact with him. "Night, Lou." He says, walking off towards his room and leaving Louis in the living room. 

 

Louis groans once he's sure Harry's out of ear shot, burying his face in his hands. First night there and he's already gone and fucked it all up. Zayn's insane if he thinks Louis can stay two weeks. With the way things are going now, he doesn't even know if he'd be able to stay one. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis isn't a fan of popstars. Unless the popstar has curly hair, green eyes, and is named Harry Styles. He really likes that popstar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, updated in two days, that's a new record, i think. This is almost 6k, so um, yeah. enjoy that
> 
> not edited, so there may be mistakes!!

They don't really talk about it, the kiss thing. Louis's grateful for it, that the next two days consist of him and Harry lounging about in Harry's flat, neither of them up to calling the other boys to do anything. It's simple, really, the way Louis and Harry are. The friendship thing comes naturally, like it's all texts and tumblr messages transferred to real people and real moments. Louis can actually hear Harry's laugh when he says something funny, or Harry can see Louis pout when he's teased him about something, and the two of them like how it is.

So, no, they don't bring up the kiss and it's like it never happened."Domestic, Harold. I think I'll stay," Louis jokes as he walks into the kitchen on the third morning while Harry's making breakfast, propping himself onto the counter and nabbing a slice of bacon from the plate. Harry smacks his hand away and Louis gasps, playfully shoving Harry's shoulder and dramatically taking a bite of the bacon strip."Terrible houseguest." Harry feigns annoyance, but smiles through it."Terrible?" Louis gasps, holding a hand to his heart."The absolute worst," Harry says with a serious expression, at least until Louis sticks out his tongue and makes him laugh. That's how it's gone the past couple of days. Harry makes Louis breakfast, Louis claims he's helping as he sneaks food, and then they sit on the sofa for the rest of the day, either on their laptops or watching tv. Harry grabs Louis's phone, sometimes, taking stupid selfies or pictures of Louis (and Louis will protest against them, but he secretly loves the attention)."Niall says Zayn was gonna talk to you about lunch," Louis says as he grabs his breakfast, sitting on one of the barstools at the kitchen island. Harry sits on the one across from him, handing him the syrup for his pancakes."Sounds good," Harry says, taking a bite of his bacon. "Did he say when?"Louis shrugs, checking his phone to see if Niall gave him a time. "Said to check with Zayn." He tells Harry, facing the phone in Harry's direction. He's not going to say how cute Harry gets when he furrows his eyebrows in concentration, no. They're  _friends_ , that's all. Friends who definitely did not kiss the other night, despite one of them being in a relationship that's made the news. It's all simply platonic and nothing else."I'll text him then," Harry smiles, picking up his own phone and shooting Zayn a quick message to confirm a time. Louis's not watching Harry's fingers as he types, that'd be weird, wouldn't it? "Might be good to spend time, you know, outside the house.""But why would I want to do that when I can spend all of my time  _inside_  the house with my favorite pop star," Louis smiles, pointing his fork in Harry's direction before shoving a pancake slice in his mouth."Because I don't think Zayn would be very happy if we didn't leave at some point," Harry says and Louis sighs, because Niall's probably going to do the same thing and it'll be harder for Louis to say no when there's two of them instead of one. Maybe he could have Harry there for reinforcements, just in case Niall tried anything. "And from what I've learned about Niall in the two and a half hours he was here, he'd do the same to you."Louis grins sheepishly, shrugging. "Right you are, Harry," He says. Harry gives him a knowing look, glancing down at his phone as it vibrates with a message from Zayn. "They're gonna double team on us, might as well do the same to them," He has a mischievous glint in his eye, one that Harry's noticed he has often, picking at another piece of bacon. "We don't  _have_  to go to lunch with them. We could always go on our own...""Are you suggesting we ditch our best mates, Tomlinson?" Harry raises an eyebrow, tapping his fork on his plate as he looked between Louis and his phone. Louis nods, grabbing Harry's phone before Harry could, replying to Zayn for him and giving the phone back. "What'd you tell him?" Harry asks, reading the message to Zayn from Louis and letting out a laugh. Louis sits up straight and shoves another slice of the pancake in his mouth, pleased with himself.' _already have plans with louis, because you know, he's the most amazing person to ever grace this earth. tomorrow, maybe, only if louis stops being amazing.'_  -Harry"I want to say Zayn knows me well enough to know that this wasn't me, but I'm not too sure," Harry jokes, taking Louis's own phone and sending a message to Niall ask revenge. Louis grabs at it, but Harry holds it out of his reach, giving a smirk when he sends the text and handing back his phone. Louis narrows his eyes at the younger boy, but takes his phone back and gasps in fake horror when he reads the message he sent to Niall.' _harry's already told zayn that we've got plans. ive decided to replace you with harry, by the way. he makes me food and tells the best jokes ive ever heard.'_  -Louis"Your jokes are actually the worst things I have ever heard," Louis tells him. Harry pouts, breaking off a piece of his bacon and flicking it at Louis. It hits the older boy on the cheek and Louis drops his fork on his plate, his eyes locked on Harry's with an offended expression on his face. Fine then, if Harry wanted to throw food, then he could throw food too.He rips off a piece of his own bacon, throwing it at Harry and landing it in his hair. Harry's eyes widen, acting shocked while Louis smiles and bites down on another forkful of pancake. "Are we really gonna do this right now?" Harry warns, picking the piece of bacon out of his hair and flicking it back in Louis's direction. It lands near Louis's plate and Louis grabs it, tossing his back at Harry and hitting him on the nose. "So we are."Louis smirks, ducking when Harry wads up a napkin and chucks it at him. He stares at Harry in disbelief, taking his own napkin and doing the same. They go back and fort like this for about ten minutes, until both Louis and Harry are out of napkins and the both of them have gotten syrup on their faces."Looks like we found ourselves in a..." Harry begins and Louis lets out a groan."Don't do it, Harry. You're better than this," He pleads, but Harry just smiles and opens his mouth to speak again."...sticky situation." Louis rolls his eyes as Harry laughs at his own pun, but after a couple of seconds he chuckles as well, only because he couldn't help but laugh when Harry did. "That was funny! You laughed!"Louis shakes his head, standing up and grabbing both his and Harry's plates. "I laughed because that was the worst pun known to man kind," He points, putting the plates in sink and leaning against the counter. "Stick to your day job.""Oh," Harry says. "You mean my career as a full time comedian won't work out?""It'd have just as good a chance as I would at being a stripper, Harry." Louis jokes, pushing himself off the counter and going to grab his phone from where he had left it. Harry's phone vibrates when he gets his and Louis immediately grabs it before Harry can, disregarding his own phone. "I think I'm going to keep Zayn, he replies to texts faster," He smiles as reads Zayn's replies, walking off towards the living before Harry can protest. He leaves his phone where Harry was, but he can hear it going off with Niall's text tone, as if on cue.Harry follows him out moments later as he's replying to Zayn, sitting down next to him on the sofa and shoving Louis's phone onto Louis's lap. "I'll keep Niall, then. Would be nice not having my phone going off every five seconds," He mutters, snatching his phone from Louis while the older boy was typing, resulting in a squeak from him. Louis covers his mouth with his hand, looking mortified as Harry gives and amused grin. "Did you just  _squeal?"_  He asks and Louis shakes his head."I did not!" He argues, but it comes out muffled because of the hand covering his mouth. He takes his hand away and glares at Harry, who began to laugh at him. "Like you haven't done anything embarrassing. I can look up Harry Styles's most embarrassing moments on YouTube right now," He threatens. Harry stops laughing and gives Louis a serious look."Don't you dare," Harry warns, dropping his phone in his lap. Louis gives a victorious glance, standing up and rushing off to the guest room where he had his laptop. "Louis, stop!" Harry exclaims, but Louis can the smile in his tone and continues with what he was doing, coming back out a few minutes later with his laptop open to YouTube and Harry covering his face in his hands.

* * *

  
They take each other's phones hostage for while they're at lunch, wanting to see who could impersonate the other best. Harry sends off some texts to Lottie, mostly just complimenting himself and Louis calls it cheating, saying Harry had the unfair advantage because that was practically  _all_  he talked about with his sister. Harry just smirked and scrolled through the rest of Louis's contacts, sending messages to some of the other friends and even to Nick, which contained some stupid pick up line that Louis swore he would get Harry back for.

Louis sends messages to mostly Zayn, maybe a couple to Harry's sister Gemma and a few to Liam as well (which Louis has taken note to changing the contact information to "Lima Bean"). "Are you  _sexting_   _Liam_?" Harry exclaims, grabbing his phone from Louis and reading over the messages he had with Liam. Harry's even forgotten that he had Liam's number, only having used it for the occasional pr stunt or when Zayn thought it'd be a good idea for the three of them to go out and do something. Honestly, Zayn asked his boyfriend out on more dates than Harry did, not that he was complaining."Nothing you haven't already done, I'm sure," Louis waves his hand as if to dismiss it, but Harry seems horrified. Liam doesn't even  _know_  that it's Louis sending the messages, he was totally and completely assuming that it was Harry sending these. "Jesus Harry, you look like you've seen a ghost," He comments, taking Harry's phone back from him and going through his other contacts. Harry relaxes a bit, letting out a sigh. "You have  _Ed Sheeran_  in your contacts?" He asks, shocked. Harry shrugs, taking a sip from his lemonade and leaning back in the chair."Yeah," Harry tells him. "We wrote a couple of songs together. He's cool.""He's cool, no, what the fuck Harry," Louis yells and Harry shushes, grinning and looking around the restaurant they were in to make sure no one was staring at them. It was a simple place, the both of them had just gotten sandwiches, chips and lemonade, planning on going for ice cream later if they were still up for it. "He's  _amazing_. Only singer I love more than--" He stops mid-sentence, pursing his lips and rethinking what he was about to say. Harry crosses his arms and sends Louis a knowing smirk, to which Louis flips him off and shakes his head. "Vain," He mumbles, but Harry just laughs and shakes his head."I am not," He argues, picking up Louis's phone when the text tone goes off. "Lottie," He informs Louis, showing Louis the message before sending back a quick message that he hopes sounds like Louis. Louis rolls his eyes, grabbing his phone from Harry to see who he's messaged so far."She's responsible for all of this, you know," Louis mutters, reading through all of the messages with Niall and being partly offended yet proud of Harry when he sees that Niall isn't able to tell the difference. "My blog and everything else. All her fault,"Harry grins, taking Louis's phone back when another text comes through. "I should send her a fruit basket for it, then," He says, reading a message from Niall and laughing.' _louis william, how dare u ditch me for a fuckin popstar. ur lucky zayns a cool guy.'_  -Niall"He's not taking the break-up well, I see," Harry teases, sending Niall a couple of kiss emojis and a heart. Louis scoffs, shaking his head and drinking his lemonade. "S'not your fault. Just my natural charm."Louis stares at him with a dumbfounded expression, letting out a sigh and putting down Harry's phone. "Right, natural charm," He mumbles, rolling his eyes for emphasis. "You are ruining my illusion of how modest and humble you are.""I  _am_  modest and humble," Harry tells him. "You bring out my worst.""Fuck you then," Louis says, reaching over and grabbing a couple of Harry's chips. "I'm taking your chips hostage, as you don't deserve them," He smiles, shoving them in his mouth. Harry shakes his head, picking one up from his plate and tossing it in Louis's direction. "Oh, so it's this again?" He laughs, flicking one of his own towards Harry."You're gonna get us kicked out." Harry says, but throws another anyways, gaining the attention of the few people around them. He smiles and waves, then goes back to throwing his chips at Louis and blocking the ones Louis throws back. They're causing a scene, probably, but Louis doesn't really care. 

 

Harry throws another few from his plate, except they've got ketchup on them and they end up hitting Louis's cheek. "Really?" Louis rolls his eyes, grabbing a napkin and wiping his face, getting all but one spot. Harry chuckles, reaching over the table and wiping off the remaining ketchup. "Thanks mum," Louis teases, dropping his napkin onto his plate and pushing his seat out. "C'mon then, I was promised ice cream and a tour of Primrose Hill."

"You're so demanding," Harry mumbles, but stands up anyways, leaving a couple of notes on the table and leading Louis out.

* * *

  
It's everywhere, the next day. Louis and Harry's lunch date (it wasn't a date, they're just pals) and quick ice cream trip afterwards had made the tabloids and gossip sites, everyone wondering who the " _mystery brunet"_  was and why he had been with Harry and Liam wasn't. The articles had even gone as far to say that Harry was cheating on Liam with Louis, which okay, they had been smiling a lot and throwing food at each other (it had been the ketchup thing that had "confirmed" it), but they were  _not_  a thing and Harry was not cheating on Liam with Louis.

"Mystery brunet, Harry. What the fuck even is this bullshit?" Louis mutters as he goes through another article on his laptop, pointing out the description to Harry. "I have a name.""Well, they don't know who you are and you have brown hair so..." Harry tells him, shrugging his shoulders and going through the millions of messages he had gotten from Zayn, all about the rumors surrounding  his and Louis's lunch yesterday. He should've suspected something like this to happen, honestly, but everything's still a bit new and he wasn't expecting getting linked to another  _guy_  for once. It's never really happened before and everyone already knows who Zayn is, so no one ever questioned him. But Louis's new and he's never really been seen (besides the airport pictures, which have also been brought back to screw them both over) with Harry before."Well they could've done some fucking research if they're gonna link me to you." Louis exits out of the article after seeing "mystery brunet" for a fourth time. "My inbox is going fucking  _insane,"_  He complains, going through in messages and reading them all off to Harry. "Louis, what the fuck, why didn't you say you were sleeping with Harry Styles?!" He rolls his eyes and moves onto another. "You could've at least waited until Liam and Harry broke up, don't be a whore." He glares at his screen, replying to the message with " _fuck you."_  and posting it."Sorry," Harry apologizes, running a hand through his hair and tossing his phone to the side, ignoring all of the messages he was getting from Zayn. Louis sighs, shaking his head and leaning back onto the sofa. "I should've known better."Louis's expression softens, shaking his head. "S'not your fault. The media is fucking stupid and fans should know better," He says, resting a hand on Harry's should and giving a reassuring smile. "Now, what's the boss saying?" He reaches for Harry's phone, grabbing it and scrolling to where the messages with Zayn began. _'harry have you seen the tabloids?' -Zayn_ _'You're in trouble, H. You and Louis.' -Zayn_ _'We're gonna try damage control, try to get rid of the cheating rumors.' -Zayn_ _'Date with Liam?' -Zayn_ _'I know you're reading these, reply.' -Zayn_ _'Harry.' -Zayn_ _'If you don't answer, I will show up.' -Zayn_ _'Niall, Liam and I are gonna be there in 15. You, me, Liam and Louis need to figure this out.' -Zayn_ ' _Ignoring me won't make it go away.' -Zayn_ "He went from friend to manager in a matter of nine messages." Louis says, giving back Harry's phone and not bothering to read the others from Zayn. Niall had been texting him as well, saying how worked up Zayn had been getting over it. It was ridiculous, to Louis. Obviously, Harry's going to have friends that aren't Zayn or Liam, so he doesn't see why this was being made such a big deal. He will never understand the life of popstars.Harry gives a weak smiles and takes his phone back from Louis, shutting it off until Zayn arrived. "He does that a lot," He says. "It's what happens when you make your best friend your manager."

 

"Well if I were famous," Louis begins, going through more of his messages and reply to the ones that weren't so shitty (and maybe a few that were). "Niall would be a terrible manager. Zayn's a good one, though."

"He is, yeah," Harry agrees, sitting back and shutting his eyes. "It's just, I'd rather have a friend than a good manager sometimes, you know?"

"Can't he be both?" 

"He's not very good at multitasking," He replies. "It's fine though, we'll figure out something to get rid of all this."

"Liam's not gonna like, hate me, is he?" Louis asks and Harry's pretty sure that's the first time Louis's called Liam by his name without needing correction. Louis claims it's simply a nickname or a slip of the tongue and Harry pretends to believe it. He also pretends he doesn't find it amusing and endearing.

"Of course not," Harry says. "He's Liam." 

Louis shrugs and resumes his attention back to his laptop. "Point there." Or well, not really. He had only interacted the day he had arrived and really, all they had done was give each other a high five and exchange a couple of sentences. Liam  _seemed_  like the type not to hate people, though, so he'll use that to base his opinion on Liam. Although he can't gaurantee that he'd stop calling him Lima, he's used it far too many times to just stop. It'd be like not calling Niall an asshole the majority of the time, too hard not to do.

"Zayn might seem a bit peeved when he gets here," Harry warns. 

"I can handle it," Louis says, smiling and shutting his laptop. His blog was slowly pissing him off, anon by anon. He'd normally just turn it off or ignire it, but then there were the brave ones who would just message him off anon or send him fanmail instead, he couldn't really avoid it, at this point. "This is isn't fair, why don't you get anon hate,"

"Getting twitter hate instead," He says it as a joke, but Louis feels bad anyways and wants to take back the comment. "I'm used to it, though," He adds when he sees how guilty Louis seems. "I don't think the airport pictures are helping."

Louis purses his lips, setting his laptop on Harry's coffee table and taking his phone instead. "Could've told me then," He sighs as he opens the twitter app. "Asshole." He says after a few seconds of hesitation. Harry laughs, nudging Louis's arm. "I'm just saying, I made a fool of myself."

"Because that would've gone over so well," Harry scoffs. "What would I even say? 'Hey, I know you're a big fan, but I'm the Harry you met through tumblr!'"

Louis grins, shoving Harry's arm. "Don't be a dick, you know what I meant." 

"Right, sure."

"Fuck off," Louis flips him off, going through his twitter mention. "It's official, I'm the most hated human being on the planet."

"I don't know about that, Justin Bieber still exists."

Louis laughs a little, shaking his head. "Alright, you're kind of funny." Harry lets out a " _yes_ ", pumping his fist in the air. Louis giggles, then stops himself and glances at Harry. The younger boy smiles in amusement and Louis points a finger in accusation, narrowing his eyes.

"Don't you dare mention this to anyone," He threatens. 

"You giggled," Harry points out. Louis sighs in annoyance, pinching the bridge of his nose. "And you squeaked yesterday."

"Shut up."

"You're adorable."

"Says the one with a butterfly on his stomach," Louis throws back, giving a knowing smirk. Harry scoffs, crossing his arms, but staying quiet. "Thought so."

 

* * *

Just as Harry had warned, Zayn wasn't exactly the most amused at the situation. Louis, unfortunately, got to witness what Harry called Zayn's "Manager Mode". It was etrememly different to the image that Louis had for Zayn, he didn't like it.

"How could you be so careless?" Zayn exclaims as he walks into Harry's flat, Niall and Liam in tow. Louis and Harry exchange glances, Harry closing the door and following Louis and the other three into the living room. 

"It was a lunch between  _friends,"_  Harry argues, collapsing on the sofa next to Louis and crossing his arms. Him, Louis and Niall were sat on the sofa, Zayn and Liam standing in front of them. Liam seemed just as tired and Harry and Louis did and Louis's mind automatically begins to feel guilty, wondering if he had somehow impacted their relationship.

"That's not what it looked like," Zayn says back. Harry rolls his eyes. "Harry, this is serious."

"You don't think I know that?" Louis doesn't think he's ever heard Harry sound as serious as he did right then. He wasn't going to say he was turned on considering the circumstances, but had that not been an issue, he'd definitely admit to it. "Whatever, just send us on a date or summat," Harry mutters, waving his hand in dismissal

Zayn shakes his head. "Can't get rid of it that easily, Harry. A date doesn't fix everything."

"Right then, it's only convenient when it's for a fucking album, not my reputation," Harry shoots and Louis's trying his best to compose himself, but that's hard to do when your celebrity crush is right next to you  _swearing_  and basically being the most attractive human to grace the earth. It's difficult.

"Harry--" Zayn starts, but is cut off by Liam. Louis wants to laugh, honestly. Liam hasn't done anything except stand besides Zayn and glance around the room in worry. Alright, there's that whole "hating" thing he was talking about, it's finally coming in. He shouldn't be jealous, it's not Liam's fault him and Harry are in a relationship. Okay, it kind of is, but he doesn't know that Louis's kind of sort of in love with his boyfriend, so Louis shouldn't hate him for it. It's all just a common misunderstanding. 

"He's got a point, Zayn," Liam says. Everyone turns there attention to him, especially Zayn eho's face softens when Liam speaks and Louis's going to pretend that he didn't see that happen. It was just a coincidence, probably. Or Zayn has a soft spot for Liam, but to be honest, who  _doesn't_  have a soft spot for Liam. Louis doesn't, he's sure. He's supposed to be hating Liam, right. How has he gotten this far, honestly? He's twenty two years old, he should not be hating people for dating his celebrity crush slash tumblr best friend. It's ridiculous.

"Yeah, listen to Lima," Louis speaks up, earning an amused stare from Harry and a confused one from Liam. Good, he should be confused. Louis will call him Lima for the rest of his life if it means this his the reaction he'll get form Harry and Liam. The attention shouldn't  _be_  on Liam. No,  _Harry's_ attention shouldn't be on Liam. It should be on Louis and fuck, here he goes again. He needs to chill before he ends up falling Liam a bitch and pulling his hair. This wasn't healthy.

"My name's Liam."

"Don't be a diva, Liam." 

Harry laughs and holds his hand out for a high five, which Louis gladly returns. Zayn and Liam look between each other, the both of them puzzled, but leaving the topic alone. Louis feels victorious.

Niall sighs from beside Louis, reminding everyone that he's still there. "How about this. Louis tweets something about having a boyfriend that isn't Harry, Harry and Liam go out on some lovey-dovey date and make fuckin' heart eyes at each other or some shit, and Zayn and I will sit back and watch my genius plan unfold."

The other four boys stay silent, all of them thinking it over and attempting to find flaws in the plan. There weren't any, shockingly enough. Louis's shocked yet envious that Niall's figured something out before him. This wasn't how their friendship worked. Louis was the clever and pretty one. Niall was...Niall. 

"Remember when I said Niall would be a shit manager?" Louis's the first to speak. Niall clears his throat and smacks Louis's arm, shaking his head and narrowing his eyes. Harry smiles and shrugs. "I lied, apparently."

"I'd be a fucking great manager," Niall argues. 

"We'll try that, then," Zayn says. "Louis, go tweet about missing your boyfriend or summat. Liam, Harry, go get ready. The two of you are going to meet at The Ivy tonight and--" He pauses, staring at Louis and Niall before continuing. "And hopefully the cheating rumors will be cleared up by tomorrow."

Harry sighs, but stands up reluctantly. "Yeah, fine. Just text me a time." He mutters, then walks off to his room, shutting the door loudly. 

"He'll be fine," Zayn tells Louis, waving his hand and staring towards the front door. Liam and Niall follow in suit. "Tomorrow though, we're gonna go out for breakfast. Be ready by ten, yeah?" 

"Yeah, we'll be ready by then," Louis says. "Also, sorry Liam."

"For?"

"You know, making the world think your boyfriend is cheating on you?" 

"Right, no problem, mate." Liam says, smiling before exiting the flat with Zayn.

Louis nods slowly, furrowing his eyebrows and biting his lip. "Okay...bye, then. Niall, stop sending me stupid messages."

"Nah, I'm good, Tommo," Niall grins and Louis sticks his tongue out at him. "Zayn and I will be by later when they're on their date." 

"Good, don't know what I'd do in Harry's place alone." Louis says. Niall laughs before he leaves. Louis doesn't know why that was funny.

 

* * *

It's midnight when Harry gets back from his date with Liam and Louis's still awake, watching tv in the living room. It's not surprising that he's up, he's been up later than that, but what is surprising is Harry stumbles in with Liam (or well, he stumbles in while Liam supports him), obviously pissed drunk and clinging onto Liam. Louis pretends not to be jealous. 

"Louis, can you give me a hand?" Liam asks and there goes Louis's plan to ignore the two of them. He stands up, walking to where Liam and Harry were and helping Liam guide Harry to the sofa, at least. Harry's bedroom was too far and both boys were too tired to attempt getting him there.

"Too much fancy wine?" Louis jokes and Harry laughs a little too loudly. Liam chuckles softly and shrugs, heading back to the front door. "See you, Liam."

"You too, Louis. Make sure he's fine?" Liam gestures towards Harry. Louis smiles softly and nods, doing his best not to wonder why Liam didn't just take him back to his flat. He won't question it. 

Liam gives a thumbs up, then rushes out and Louis goes to lock the door behind him before sitting on the sofa besides Harry. The younger boy leans onto Louis's shoulder and Louis glances down at him. 

"Louis," Harry says. 

"Hm?"

"Kiss me."

Louis raises his eyebrows in shock, then shakes his head. "You've got a boyfriend, Harry." Louis reminds him. "You know, Liam? Just walked you in?" He doesn't even make an effort to pretend not to know Liam's name. It's late, he's tired and he wants Harry to stop provoking him. All of this could all be avoided if Harry would just remember that fact that he was in a  _relationship._ Louis doesn't deserve this, he's been a pretty good person all his life, he shouldn't have been treated so cruelly by fate. To have met his celebrity crush when they're in a relationship and to have them asking to kiss them while they're still in this relationship. It wasn't fair at all and he hated it. Just as much as he hated Harry at the moment for being, just, Harry.

"Liam won't care. Just kiss me."

"I'm not gonna do that, Harry."

Harry groans, sitting up straight and facing Louis. "Your celebrity crush is begging you to kiss him and you're just going to say no." Harry didn't understand. He was sitting right there in front of Louis,  _asking_  him to kiss him. Why wasn't Louis agreeing? That's what he wanted, wasn't it? Louis wanted to kiss Harry just as much as Harry wanted to kiss Louis, he was sure. That's what Louis said in almost all of his messages, so why wouldn't he just  _kiss him._ That's all he wanted, was for Louis to kiss him. And well, if things were to go farther than that, then he wouldn't tell Zayn and he's sure Louis wouldn't tell either, so he doesn't see what the problem was right now. Stupid fucking Zayn and Liam with their stupid fucking pr stunt and publicity relationship. He could've had Louis  _days_  ago if it weren't for this. 

"Don't use that against me," Louis warns and Harry sighs, resting his head back on Louis's shoulder. "You should go to bed, Harry."

"M'not tired." That's a lie, he's lying. He is tried, but he refuses to go to bed without at least a kiss from Louis. He probably sound ridiculous, but he just needs it right now and he hates Zayn for making it so difficult to get something he needs. He should just tell Louis everything. He could trust Louis by now, he's sure. He'd just make Louis promise not to tell anyone and not to tell Zayn that he told him. It's a foolproof plan that ends with him getting Louis and the pr stunt still going according to plan. He should do it. Except he's not going to because something could go wrong and Zayn would kill him.

"Yes you are."

"I'll go to bed if you kiss me." One last resort. Doesn't work. Louis rolls his eyes, pushing Harry off of him and standing up. He takes Harry's hands in his, pulling him up so the taller boy is standing. Harry stumbles a bit and Louis steadies him. "Are you going to kiss me?" Harry asks, placing his hands on Louis's hips and closing the space between them. The older boy shakes his head, breaking eye contact and glancing around the room just to avoid Harry's eyes. "Louis."

"No, Harry, I'm not. You're dating Liam." Liam Liam Liam, why does Liam have to be brought up every single time. Like, yeah, okay, he was dating him, but does dating even  _mean_  anything in the celebrity world anymore. Taylor swift is always  _dating_ , but he's sure it doesn't even matter to anyone. So like, why does it matter that he's "dating" Liam? Why can't Louis stop being a good person and just kiss him?

"Liam won't care, I promise." Harry reassures. Louis scoffs, attempting to wiggle out of Harry's grip, but Harry pulls him him closer and he's sure this is as close as they can get without their faces touching. Louis won't look at him. He wants Louis to look at him. He wants Louis to  _kiss him._

"Harry, you're drunk and this isn't a smart idea."

Harry snorts, his lips forming a smirk. "I'd still want to kiss you if I weren't drunk." That's the truth. Louis's got beautiful, blue eyes and feathery, soft hair. He's small and curvy and fit into Harry like a puzzle piece and he wants to kiss Louis all the fucking time, but he  _can't_  and he hates it.

"That doesn't make it a smart idea." Louis tells him, still facing away frim Harry.

"No one said it had to be a smart idea," Harry begins, taking one hand off Louis's hip and gently turning the other boy's head to meet his eyes. "Just a good one." He brushes his lips against Louis's and Louis wants to give into it, he's so close to pressing his lips against Harry's, but he pushes away at the last moment, shaking his head.

"I'm not that kind of person, Harry," He says in a soft voice, avoiding Harry's eyes. "Go to bed, Harry. We have to get up early." He smiles half heartedly before turning around and going to the guest room, leaving Harry in the living room.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis isn't a fan of popstars. Unless the popstar has curly hair, green eyes, and is named Harry Styles. He really likes that popstar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so basically....this is the second to last chapter...but, i tried to, idk, make it a pretty damn good chapter, so there's that.
> 
> un-beta'd, mistakes are mine, blah blah blah:)

Louis wouldn't exactly describe things as tense, but he's also not going to deny that he spent the majority of breakfast doing his best to avoid talking to Harry, instead making conversation with Zayn and even Liam, for that matter. That doesn't mean it's tense, though, it just means that Louis doesn't really know how to say anything around Harry that doesn't include "Why do you keep trying to kiss me?" and so he decides not to say anything at all.

Zayn notices, he thinks. If he has, then he isn't saying anything and Louis's glad for that. He doesn't want to have to explain to Harry's best friend that him and Harry not only kissed on his first night there, but also almost kissed last night while Harry was drunk and didn't know what he was doing. That would probably make things more awkward than they should be and Louis wasn't here for that. If Harry wanted to tell him, then Harry could go ahead and do that himself. Chances are, though, Harry wouldn't do that, especially considering what happened the day before with the cheating rumors and everything.He doesn't know what to think, honestly. He doesn't want to go and assume Harry's the type of person to cheat, but he can't go and deny it after last night. Or he could, considering that he doesn't have all the details of Harry and Liam's relationship, but it doesn't really seem that way and he's pretty sure that their relationship was exclusive. Then again, it wasn't like he was desperate enough to go and ask Harry about his relationship. Wait, no, he was, but Harry didn't need to know that, so he'll keep the question to himself and silently glance at Harry every few seconds."Louis, are you alright?" Zayn asks, snapping his fingers in front of Louis's face and gaining the older boy's attention. Louis blinks a couple of times, focusing on Zayn and smiling weakly. He gives a quick look in Harry's direction and the younger lad seems a bit concerned, but turns away when he meets Louis's gaze and returns to his conversations with Niall. Okay, so, it's kind of tense."M'ace," Louis says, drumming his fingers on the table. "What were we talking about?" He hadn't meant to not pay attention, honest. There were just a lot of things going on in his head at once and it was making it hard for him to focus.Zayn raises an eyebrow and Louis's worried that he's about to question him, but instead Zayn just shrugs and restates what Louis assumes was the question he missed. "I was asking if you've decided to stay the extra week or not." The extra week, right, Louis hadn't forgotten about that at all."Oh," He begins. "Not sure, I'll see if I can get another week off." He's lying. Him and Niall had gotten two weeks off of work, just in case that had ended up staying the extra week. Louis, at the time, had thought that things would go well, so he just convinced his boss to give him the time off and he was set. "Might not be able to." Lying, again. Niall notices, glancing over to his best mate with a confused expression and nudging Louis's foot under the table. Louis looks over at him, giving him a look to say " _don't say anything"._  Niall nods slowly, still confused, but starts talking to Harry and Liam again about his classes at Uni and forgets the entire exchange. Louis knew he could count of Niall for something."That's weird, Niall had said you two had gotten next week off," Zayn hums and the color from Louis's face drains. Both boys glance to the other three, who weren't paying any attention to the both of them. They focus their attention back on each other, Zayn crossing his arms on the table and leaning over. "What's going on then, Louis?" He asks in a hushed tone, seeming concern. Louis doesn't know if it's a friend thing or a manager thing, but he doesn't exactly care."Nothing's wrong," Louis lies again. Everything's wrong. He's just about fucked things up with Harry and he feels guilty about Liam, even though nothing had really happened, but still. If his boyfriend had been practically begging for another guy to kiss him, Louis would be pissed and Liam should be pissed too, except he doesn't  _know._  Louis wants to tell him, but if he does, he would have ruined his and Harry's relationship and he doesn't really think that's his place to do so."Has it got something to do with Harry?" How the fuck did Zayn figure that out so quickly? Was it obvious, or something? Did he just give off that kind of vibe? If Zayn could tell, who else could tell? Hopefully not Liam, because okay, Louis didn't like him all that much, but still. That doesn't mean he wanted Liam to know.

 

"Everything's fine, Zayn."

"Harry can be a bit of an idiot sometimes...""Zayn."Zayn laughs, shaking his head. "If something's happened, just tell me, yeah?" He says and Louis nods even though he has no intention of telling Zayn anything that's happened. He can't do that, honestly. What if Zayn tells Liam and then there goes not only Harry's relationship, but his friendship too, and no, Louis will not be responsible for that. He'll let Harry deal with all of this, he didn't want to be thrown into this mess. "I was a bit off yesterday, I know.""A bit?" Louis says. "Mate, you're like, two different people." He jokes and Zayn laughs. Liam and Harry both quickly look over at the two boys, then go back to their conversation with Niall. Louis arches a brow at their odd behavior, but decides to ignore it for the time being."I have to be," Zayn replies. "I love Harry. We're like brothers, but he trusted me to be his manager and I don't want anything to happen to him because of me. I literally have his career in my hands." And well, when you put it that way, Louis can see why he was so uptight the day before. He probably would be too, if he had known Harry for that long and had such a large role in his music career."I see what you mean, mate." Louis smiles. "You're a good friend, though. A great manager, too. He's lucky to have you.""I like you, Louis," Zayn says after a couple of seconds of silence. "I'm glad Harry found you." Found, that's such a strange word, but Louis will take it. Harry found Louis and Louis found Harry. Sounds about right.  


* * *

  


They had all gathered at Zayn's flat after breakfast, the excuse being that Louis and Harry had spent too much time at Harry's and needed a new environment. Louis agreed, Harry didn't, but they ended up going to Zayn's anyways. It was four against one, anyways, so Harry really didn't have a choice or a say in the matter."Have you two even gotten to know each other the past few days or have you just been separately blogging next to each other?" Niall asks, sitting down in between Harry and Louis and handing them both another beer. Louis's not sure how many he's had since they've gotten there, but his vision's kind of weird, so he'll say he's not completely sober. He shrugs, leaning back as Liam and Zayn retreat from the kitchen with a couple of bags of crisps."A little bit," Harry starts and Zayn rolls his eyes and sits right beside him, shoving his shoulder. "Don't roll your eyes at me," Harry tells him. "Liam, tell him not to roll his eyes at me."Liam laughs, sitting on the ground in between Harry and Zayn. "Can't do that Harry, he's as much my boss as he is yours," Liam tells him, Louis thinks that that's the first thing that he's heard Liam say that was the least bit funny. With the time he's spent around both Harry and Liam, he doesn't see how they're compatible at all. Honestly, neither of them seem that much interested in the other and if he had anything to say, it'd look like Liam was more interested in the couch cushion than he was Harry. Same goes for Harry. Celebrity relationships were strange."What?" Harry asks. "Excuse me, Zayn, when did I  _allow_  you to have other clients that weren't me?" He says in a joking tone, trying to seem serious but failing. "Careful bro," He tells Liam and Louis raises an eyebrow. Bro? Since when do you call your boyfriend bro? That'd be a bit strange, seeing how, well, you're in a romantic relationship. He won't say anything, though, it's their relationship and everything. "Zayn can be a bit of a dick sometimes.""Shut up, Harry," Zayn smacks his arm. "I'm amazing. Louis thinks I'm a great manager, right Lou?" That's the first time any of the three have called him Lou. He assumed Harry would be the first to use it, to be honest, but he'll take Zayn, too. Just anyone except Liam."Sure," He mutters, because right, he did say that to Zayn earlier. "Hey, you should hire me as your personal assistant. I'm pretty damn ace at making tea." He suggest, taking a handle of crisps from the bag Niall had stolen. Zayn laughs, but Louis just stares at him. "I'm one hundred percent serious. Toys R Us is shit.""I'm sure you make the uniforms look glamorous." Harry tells him and well, thats probably the first thing he's said to Louis today besides " _good morning_ "."I'll think about it," Zayn tells him before his phone rings. He looks down at the caller id, then glances over at Liam and answers the call. "Hello, Zayn Malik speaking," He greets, standing up from where he's sat and walking down a corridor until he's out of ear shot.Louis keeps his gaze on Liam, who's eyes are still lingering in the direction Zayn had gone. He raises an eyebrow, drumming his finger on his thigh when Liam gets up, excusing himself to see if Zayn's call had something to do with him. He looks at Harry, who just nods, too enthralled in whatever was happening on his twitter feed to pay attention. What the hell kind of communication system did Liam and Harry have? Niall and Louis probably seemed more intimate than they did and Niall's the last person on his  _'to fuck'_  list. Well almost. He's right above Nick Grimshaw."I'm going to the toilet," Louis says, handing Niall his drink and standing. He wasn't lying. Not completely, anyways. He did have to go to the bathroom, but he also had to go see what the fuck Liam Payne and Zayn Malik were up to and why they kept staring at each other like they knew a secret no one else did. Louis didn't like not knowing things, that's why he ran a  _blog_. He always knew the things that he wanted to know, whether it was Harry's new album getting leaked or a new rumor. Whatever it was, he knew about it first thing. So this whole secret shit with Zayn and Liam was kind of pissing him off.He slips down the corridor he had seen both boys go down, pretending to look for the bathroom (or actually, he really was looking for one) while trying to figure out where they had gone. There were too many doors down that hallway, but the whispers grew louder with each step he took.He reached the last door at the end when the whispers stopped and he wasn't sure what to do. If he opened the door, he doesn't know what'd be behind it. There's a lot of different things that they could be doing, maybe it was actually an important business call and Louis could ruin it by barging in. That would be a pretty shitty move on his part, honestly, so he's really hoping that this isn't the case. Except the sounds were far too quiet for that, so he'd have to just open the door and figure it out. So, plan was, open the door, find out what they're up to, pretend he meant by to find the bathroom, then walk away satisfied at his newfound information. It was a really great plan, maybe he should become a spy or something.He takes a deep, dramatic breath, grabbing the handle and shoving the door open. He really hopes those four years as a drama major did something for him, because he's going to need the best fucking lie to use on Harry after this. Zayn and Liam were making out, in the middle of the room,  _while Liam's boyfriend was rooms away._  Louis suddenly didn't feel bad for doing the same with Harry nights ago. Liam  _deserved_  all those times Louis purposely mispronounced his name, not that he would ever admit he did it on purpose. If Harry asked, it was all simply an accident and he genuinely believed his name was Lima.The two don't notice Louis standing at the doorway, not until Louis clears his throat. The older boy crosses his arms, leaning against the doorframe as they pull away from one another, Zayn's eyes widening when he sees it was Louis that had caught them. It could be worse, Louis thinks. It could have been Harry that caught them instead, god knows how awkward that would've been."Funny, this isn't the bathroom," Louis comments, glancing around the room and pretending to be shocked. "But," He says, his eyes setting on Liam. "That's not your boyfriend." He points to Zayn, who raises his hands in surrender."Louis, we can explain," Liam starts, but Louis holds up a finger and shakes his head. He's not the one that's going to need an explanation, that person will be Harry. Who Louis was most definitely going to tell about this, because he deserved to know. Louis would be a pretty shitty friend if he didn't tell him that his best friend and boyfriend were sneaking behind his back."Don't need to," Louis says. "What's happening, as far as I can tell, is that you're dating Harry for the fame." He called it, he totally called it. Liam didn't even  _like_  Harry, it had been so obvious. He should've known sooner, or well, he did, but he should've said something sooner. Then, Harry could've avoided all of this and like, Louis wouldn't be caught in this position. He doesn't really give a shit about Zayn and Liam's feelings on the topic, right now.Liam glances to Zayn, who seems just as worried as he does, so that doesn't do anything for him. "Right, okay,  I  _am_ , but not the way you think I am." What the fuck is he even saying? Does Liam think when he speaks or does he just say whatever pops into his mind? Louis likes this, now he has an actual reason to hate Liam Payne. This is the moment he's been waiting for, he can use all the insults he wants without having to think about hurting Liam's feelings. Liam doesn't deserve feelings, he's sitting here snogging his boyfriend's best friend, like what the fuck?"Are there other ways to use someone for their fame?" The answer is no. Louis knows the answer is no, Liam knows the answer is no and Zayn also knows the answer is no. He's glad they're all on the same page for something, They're both silent at his words and he smirks, standing straight. "I'm not saying I'm not telling Harry, because as his friend," He looks at Zayn directly when he says this. "I think he deserves to know." He turns around, making sure to slam the door behind him before walking back out to the living room."That took you a while," Niall says when Louis enters. Louis shrugs, glancing at the empty spot between Niall and Harry and smiling. Just because  _Liam_  doesn't want Harry, doesn't mean  _Louis_  won't have him. As it turns out, he might get to use his plan to seduce Harry Styles, after all. And well, if Liam sees him flirting with his boyfriend, then that's too bad for him."Couldn't find it," He states, sitting on Harry's lap and taking the younger boy by surprise. "We've barely talked all day.""I've noticed," Harry mumbles, resting his hands on Louis's shoulders. "Had to talk to Niall about coursework." He grimaces."Well sorry, not all of us can be fucking famous." Niall throws at him, shaking his head and ignoring the two of them in favor of the movie they must have put in while Louis had been gone. Louis smiles, grabbing Harry's hands off his shoulder's and wrapping his arms around his waist. Harry stays still for a minute, not sure hot to take Louis's actions, but he eases into the intimacy quickly and refocuses on the movie.Louis decides Harry isn't paying him enough attention. He sighs, wiggling his bum onto Harry's crotch and smirking when Harry shifts his hips. He leans his head back onto Harry's shoulder and smiles lazily. "Hi," He whispers."Louis, what are you doing?" Harry asks and Louis frowns. That's not the response he was going for.He sits up straighter, reaching his arm out to the side and smacking Niall's arm. "Go get me a beer. I know you drank mine," He orders. Niall sighs, but gets up anyways and heads in the direction of the kitchen. Louis grins, moving Harry's hands from around his waist and turning around on Harry's lap so he was facing him. "Remember what I said?"Harry blinks a couple of times, opening his mouth, but no words come out. Louis's on top of him. Literally, Louis Tomlinson is sitting on top of him. He doesn't know how Louis went from avoiding him to this, but he'll take it."Harry," Louis says, regaining his attention. He has to be quick, Niall could come back any minute and Liam and Zayn would probably be back at any moment. "Do you still want me to kiss you?""Are you sober right now?" Harry asks. No, Louis doesn't want this reaction, what the hell? Harry, no, he can't just tell Louis he wants him the night before and then shoot him down just because he's not  _sober_. What the fuck, this was bullshit.Before he can respond, he hears footsteps coming from the hallway and he bites his lip. He glances behind himself just as Liam and Zayn are walking in, then lets out a sigh and faces Harry again, grabbing the younger boy's face and pressing his lips to Harry's fuck it, fuck Liam and Zayn. If Liam could kiss boys he wasn't supposed to, Louis could do the same.He can feel Liam and Zayn's eyes on him and Harry, but he ignores the feeling as Harry kisses back, placing his hands on his hips and pulling Louis in closer. "Take me home," He mumbles against Harry's lips and Harry nods, pulling away from Louis and widening his eyes when he sees Liam and Zayn standing across the room. Zayn looks kind of pissed, but then again, he'd be pissed too if his best friend was making out with someone on his couch. So okay, he'll let Zayn be pissed right now."Um, right," Harry starts, looking between Liam and Zayn. "It's not what it looks like?" He tries and Zayn scoffs, nudging Liam's shoulder and mumbling something that neither Louis or Harry can hear.Louis laughs, climbing off of Harry's lap and turning to face Zayn and Liam. "Oops," He says, shoving his hands in his pockets and shrugging. "I kissed your boyfriend," He smirks. "And to be honest, I  _really_  think your boyfriend wants to fu-""Louis, I got your fucking beer- Why is everyone all tense? Did I miss something?" Niall asks, interupting when he walks in and raising an eyebrow. "Louis always does stupid shit when he's drunk, it's hilarious. Never knows what he's saying."Lou, I think we should go," Harry says, standing up and placing a hand on Louis's waist. Louis clings to Harry's side, burying his face in Harry's chest and smiling. He probably seemed like the biggest asshole right, but like, he just made out with Harry Styles , so he doesn't really care. "Zayn, call me later?" Ha. Zayn. Not Liam. He doesn't even care that Liam's seen him kissing someone else.Zayn lets out a sigh, but nods anyways. "We'll talk about everything." He says. Harry nods, giving an apologetic smile before saying bye to Liam and Niall and walking out of Zayn's flat with Louis.

* * *

  


"Louis, I think we need to talk about this first," Harry says as soon Louis's lips are gone from his own and he's being pushed down onto his bed. Talking, Louis doesn't like talking. Talking leads to second guesses and people saying no, so he'd rather not talk and just get on with it. "Talk about what?" Louis asks, sitting on top of Harry and smiling. "You want to fuck me and I want you to fuck me. We're at a mutual agreement here, aren't we?" He leans down to kiss Harry again, but the younger boy pushes him away gently. Louis sighs, sitting up straight. This wasn't how his plan was supposed to be going. Harry was ruining it by being logical."You said you weren't that kind of person last night," Harry says. Right, shit, Louis did say that. But in his defense, it was before he found out about the whole Liam and Zayn thing, so technically, he still  _isn't_  that kind of person. He's just taking advantage of the fact that Harry and Liam's relationship was already down the drain. That doesn't make him  _that_  kind of person. It's not cheating if the other person in the relationship is already cheating, right? "And I know it was unfair of me to put all of that on you, but why now? What's changed?" Literally  _everything_ has changed. "Liam's cheating on you with Zayn," He says bluntly, tapping his fingers on Harry's stomach. He hadn't meant for it to come out so quickly, but when you're  _this close_  to sleeping with your celebrity crush, it's hard to control what you say and how you say it. Especially when you're sat on top of them and you can feel their hard-on through their jeans. That's really giving him more motivation to just get the stupid Liam and Zayn thing over with. "I caught them at Zayn's.""Shit, Louis," Harry mutters, letting out a chuckle. Louis's confused, but turned on at the same time and he's not sure which feeling he should act on. It's okay though, apparently, because Harry's gonna help him with the confusion part first. Damn. "I'm not, okay, um, Liam and I aren't actually together.""What are you talking about?" Louis asks, furrowing his eyebrows. "I watched the interview where you confirmed it." He also laid in his bed for a day typing out posts about how this was all stupid and Liam didn't really deserve Harry (his inner teenage girl came out), but still, it had been confirmed in an interview, so he had taken that as a "yes, Liam and I are dating". Which is literally what Harry had said. Those exact words."It's all just publicity. My album had just gotten released and Liam was recording his debut album, not to mention that I wanted to come out, so that was the plan," Harry explains. "Liam and I date for the cameras. We're not really together.""Do you mean," Louis starts, realization dawning on him. "I made myself seem like a total knob, fuck," He complains, running a hand through his hair. "Why didn't you tell me!" He smacks Harry on the chest and Harry flinches a little, letting out a laugh."Zayn and Liam understand, don't worry," He reassures. "But if it helps, I didn't actually know they were sleeping together."Louis rolls his eyes. "That doesn't help," He mutters, crossing his arms. "God, I looked like an idiot. Why didn't you stop me?" He gets off of Harry, sitting beside him. Harry sighs, sitting up and turning to Louis."Was kinda hard to do that when, you know, your mouth was on mine," He said, smiling. Louis smacked his arm, this wasn't funny. Okay, it was kind of funny, but he's just made himself look like a complete idiot in front of Liam and Zayn when it was unnecessary. He was probably never going to live that down, honestly. He really owes Zayn and Liam and apology. Especially Liam, who is no way in the wrong here, so right, he'll apologize to both of them at some point. Not now, though, because he's finally gotten in bed with Harry and he's not letting it slip away that easily."Well you could've pulled away and said 'hey Louis, im not actually dating Liam, so don't make a scene'," Louis deepens his voice to something that's supposed to sound like Harry's when he says the last part. Harry scoffs, rolling his eyes and laying his head on Louis's shoulder. 

 

"First of all," He starts. "I don't sound like that. And second, where's the fun in that?" 

 

"You're an asshole," Louis tells him, but the smile on his face gives himself away. Stupid fucking Harry Styles. 

 

"Yes, but you run a blog on this asshole."

 

"I'm gonna delete."

 

"No you're not."

 

"No I'm not," Louis repeats. This is ridiculous. His life is being run by a popstar. He's said it before online, but like, it's  _real_  now. Harry's actually telling him  _not_  to delete his blog, this isn't what he signed up for. He's gonna yell at Lottie again. It's that time of the week, anyways. He's been ignoring her calls and texts after the rumors, because he can handle his followers turning against him, but he wasn't sure what his sister thought of everything and he's rather not find out. She probably defended him, but still, he'd rather play it safe for now. 

 

Harry laughs and looks up at Louis. It stays quiet between the two of them for a moment, Harry being the one to break the silence. "Can I take a picture of you?" He asks, remembering how much he had wanted to photograph Louis. He could do it now, Louis was right there next to him. He really wanted to do it right now.

 

"I'm pretty sure I've taken millions of selfies--"

 

"No, I mean a real one. Like, on my camera," He says. "I wasn't lying about that part, you know. I do like photography."

 

"Isn't that for like, nature and other pretty things?" Louis questions, watching as Harry stood up and walked across the room. That's all Harry's blog ever had, was pictures of the sky, or scenery, things like that. He'd never actually seen people on his blog, not unless he had reblogged it from somebody else. 

 

"You're pretty," Harry tells him, grabbing his camera from his desk and turning around. "So, can I?" 

 

Louis bites his lip, thinking it over before nodding. Who was he to deny Harry Styles a picture? He should probably stop thinking about Harry like that. Like he was just someone famous that he happen to know. That's not what Harry was. Harry was so much more than that, in Louis's mind. He had a small impression from what he had seen in interviews and on stage, but Harry in real life was so much more amazing than all of that. Louis actually can't believe that he's had the chance to see what Harry was actually like and to actually  _know him_  as a person.

 

"Photograph me like one of your French girls," That's the first thing Louis thinks to say and he regrets it as soon as the words leave his mouth. Harry, on the other hand, seems amused at the reference, shaking his head and glancing down at his camera.

 

"You did not just quote Titanic," He says, his tone full of disbelief. Louis tries to stay completely serious, but ends up bursting into laughter anyways, which Harry takes as his cue to take the picture. He grins, stepping closer to the bed and bringing the camera up. He focuses it on Louis, then presses down on the shutter and looking down at the result. 

 

There's certain people that look great either only on camera or only in person. Louis isn't one of them. Harry was right when he said Louis would look great in a photograph, but he hadn't thought that it'd come out like  _this._  He wants to tell himself that he's overreacting and being completely biased because it's  _Louis_ , but he's one hundred percent amazed at how photogenic Louis naturally was. The way that his eyes sparkled and the crinkles he got by his eyes when he was laughing, or how his hair was messy but looked so flawless. The way his nose scrunched up, or how all around happy he seemed in the picture. Louis was just effortlessly beautiful, in Harry's eyes.

 

"How'd it come out then?" Louis asks and Harry's eyes flicker up from the camera, his gaze quickly blinking back to the photo then to Louis again. "It was bad, wasn't it?" He asks and Harry quickly shakes his head, his lips curving into a smile.

 

"It came out wonderful, Lou," He says, turning to put the camera back down on his desk. 

 

"Can I see it?" Louis asks, crawling to the end of the bed and sitting up straight. "I need to make sure it's good enough that you can't blackmail me with it," He teases and Harry chuckles, showing Louis the picture and waiting for a reaction. Louis stares at it for a minute, then smiles and looks up at Harry. "I like it, you don't have to delete it."

 

"As if I was going to," Harry tells him. Louis sticks out his tongue, collapsing back on the bed and staring up on the ceiling. "I won't post it, though. Might give everything away." He puts his camera back down on his desk, going to lay beside Louis. The older boy turns over, laying on Harry's chest. He could do that, right? They were making out with each other earlier, a bit of cuddling probably won't do anything.

 

"So you're just going to keep it?" He asks. "What's the point of taking a picture if no one's going to see it?" 

 

"Sometimes, there's things you want to keep to yourself," Harry answers, playing with Louis's hair. He likes how they are, right now. He likes how Louis just fits into him, like they were made for each other. How they were like puzzle pieces, almost. "You're one of those things."


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis isn't a fan of popstars. Unless the popstar has curly hair, green eyes, and is named Harry Styles. He really likes that popstar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LAST CHAPTER:) I would like to thank brittany ungodlythighs for harassing me day after day to write this, i would probably take forever to update if she didn't tell me to write this (i still took forever to update) (oops)

Louis decides to stay the extra week. The only thing is that Harry has tour rehearsals that week, but they work around it. And by work around, he means Harry's breaks are spent sneaking around and Louis giving Harry quick blowjobs in the bathroom. The best part, they've both decided, is when Zayn gives them both an exhausted look and shakes his head when they come back, Louis lips red and swollen while Harry's face is flushed. Whatever. It's not like he expected any less.

He's not completely sure on what him and Harry are. He wants to hold his hand and go on dates, but the thing is, Harry's still "dating" Liam and even if they did break up, Harry would seem like a liar and a cheater if him and Louis were to start dating right after. Neither of them wanted that, so if this whole thing did mean they were dating, then they'd have to figure out something. Or well, Zayn would have to figure out something. Zayn's the manager, anyways. It's his job to figure things out.The thing is, too, is the Louis doesn't want to leave. He  _has_  to because of work and his family, not to mention his flat that he is still very much paying rent for. So there's very valid reasons for him to have to go back, but he really doesn't want to. He likes being here, in London with Harry, being able to see him every day and to hold a normal conversation with him. The whole texting him thing seems kind of useless now that they've actually talked and spent time with each other, so he really doesn't want that to end.He hasn't talked to Harry about that, yet. He hasn't really talked to Harry about anything, yet, to be quite honest. They should talk about it, especially if Louis's leaving in a few days and the whole Liam thing is going on. If Louis ever decides to make the rash decision to move to London (him and Niall  _may_  be considering it), then everything needs to be talked out and settled before anything's done. He needs to do that soon, he decides. Only because he's impatient and he really wants all of this to go somewhere with Harry."Since I'm watching rehearsals, do I really need tour tickets?" Louis asks, looking through the pictures he's taken the past week on his phone while the younger boy is on his laptop. Harry looks up from his screen, furrowing his eyebrows. Louis sighs, putting his phone down in his lap. "You know, the entire reason I'm here?" He adds. "If you hadn't mentioned the tickets, I wouldn't have mentioned meeting.""Right, the tour," Harry says, pausing for a minute before looking back down on his laptop. "I don't even think you need a ticket." He tells him. Louis sighs, kicking Harry's leg with his foot. They're too far away from each other, he thinks. Harry's on the other side of the sofa, which okay, that wasn't really that far away, but anything besides full body contact was too far away for Louis. Only their legs were touching right now, but that wasn't even much, because Harry had really long giraffe legs so like, it didn't count. He needed to actually be right next to Harry, shoulder to shoulder, knees to knees. Mouth to mouth too, but that's completely optional. (No it's not) (Louis wants to make out with Harry right now.)"Why not?" He asks, his eyes on Harry's lips. It  _wasn't_  his fault that Harry's lips were red and plump and very kissable right now. He'd lean over and kiss him if his fucking laptop weren't in the way. He should tell Harry to move it, but that would take the dramatics out of things and Louis was all about being dramatic. "Do you  _not_  want me to be there?"Harry scoffs without looking up from his laptop. "No, of course I'd want my b--" He stops himself, doing the cute mouth thing that Louis's grown to love from seeing it in interviews and on performances. It was even cuter in person, he's realized.  _Everything_  Harry does is cuter in person, it's not fair. Harry shouldn't even be allowed to be a human, like what the fuck, this wasn't normal.Louis switches his train of thought, going back to how Harry had cut himself off and was staring down at his laptop quizzically. What was he going to say? It had started with a 'B', obviously, but a lot of words start with B, so there's not exactly one word he could assume. "What was that?""Nothing," Harry replies too quickly, shrugging. "Anyways, ignoring that--""But what were you going to say?"  Louis presses, straightening himself and biting his lip. Harry couldn't just do that, he couldn't just almost say something and then not tell Louis what he was going to say. It was probably something meaningless, but still, Louis wanted to know what it was or it was probably going to kill him. Wait no, it would definitely kill him. He would actually die from not knowing what Harry was going to say.Harry waves his hand in a dismissive manner, shaking his head and looking up at Louis. "It wasn't important, Lou. But like I was saying, of course I want you to be there. You wouldn't need a ticket, though. You could have one of those backstage pass things, if you wanted," He keeps talking after that, but Louis's zoned out by that point. B, what could he possibly have said that started with a B? Brother? No, he doesn't have one, it wouldn't make sense for that. B, nothing else that starts with a B makes any sense. Well there was  _boyfriend_ , but Louis already knew him and Liam weren't a thing so--wait."Boyfriend!" Louis exclaims, interrupting Harry in the middle of his explaining. "You were gonna say boyfriend, weren't you?" He asks. Harry pauses, doing the mouth thing again and darting his eyes anywhere else around the room besides Louis's own two. "Wait, fuck, you called me your boyfriend." And honestly, he really didn't mean for it to sound as harsh as it did. He  _wanted_  to be Harry's boyfriend, that's all he wanted since he started liking this fucking guy, and even more after he actually met him."I didn't mean that," Harry says, letting out a sigh. "It just slipped. I'm sorry if like, that's weird or something. Especially with, um, how we are and everything--""Harry, shut up," Louis shoots and the younger boy immediately stops talking. Louis smiles, leaning forward and shutting Harry's laptop. He should've just done that from the beginning, honestly. But anyways, back to what he was supposed to be doing. He places Harry's laptop onto the coffee table, moving himself onto Harry's lap. "This is fun to do.""It's fun for me, too," Harry says, wrapping his hand's around Louis's waist and pulling him closer. "But sorry again, for the boyfriend thing. I wasn't thinking--" Louis cuts him of with a kiss, his hand cupping Harry's face and his lips gently pressing against Harry's. Their eyes flutter close, their lips lingering for a minute before Louis pulls away."Boyfriend," He says in a hushed tone, resting his forehead on Harry's and grinning. "I want to be your boyfriend. Do  _you_  want me to be your boyfriend?"Harry nods, then pushes forward and plants his lips on Louis's again. "You're my boyfriend." He says once he pulls away, smiling. "We just have to, um, talk to Zayn about this, then." He sighs.Louis purses his lips. He wasn't sure how this entire thing would play out. Sure, Harry's best mate Zayn would totally approve, but Harry's manager Zayn would probably be against it. They wouldn't be able to be public, anyways. Louis doesn't mind that bit, being public. It'd be nice, having Harry to himself and not being known as "that guy dating Harry Styles". But there's always the fact that they'd barely be able to go on dates, or hold hands or kiss while they're together, so yeah, maybe he would want to go public with it. Maybe he'd want everyone to know that he was Harry's and Harry was his.

* * *

  
"We're in a relationship," Harry says to Zayn, intertwining his fingers with Louis's and smiling weakly. Him and Louis had talked it out the night before, Louis laying his head on Harry's while they contemplated when and how to tell Zayn. They agreed on two days before Louis had to go back home, giving Zayn enough time to figure things out. Louis had to figure some things out, too, like if he was going to move to London just for Harry, or if he'd just stay in Manchester and make the three hour commute every once in a while. He was leaning more towards the former, but they'll see how this plays out first.

Zayn stares blankly at the both of them, leaning against his kitchen counter. He nods slowly, then speaks. "So you're like, official now? " He asks, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah," Louis says. He's still not sure how Zayn feels about him, since the whole Liam thing from last week. He had apologized and Zayn said they had moved on from it, but he still feels like things are tense between them. Which they probably are, since Louis drunkenly accused him and Liam of cheating on Harry ( _not_  his fault), then proceeded to make out with Harry obnoxiously on his sofa. That might put a bit of a strain in the new found friendship, but he's sure they'll be able to work through it at some point in time. Not right now, though. They had bigger things to worry about, like somehow getting away with Harry "breaking up" with Liam and getting together with Louis."Oh," That's all he says before standing straight and walking to the fridge. He grabs three bottles of water, handing one to the both of them. "That's alright then," He mumbles. "Why are you telling me so dramatically?" Apparently nine in the morning is too early for Manager Zayn to make an appearance. Louis doesn't blame him, he'd rather be in bed as well. Harry's gone and dragged him out this early just to go and tell Zayn, it was unnecessary, in Louis's opinion. But like Harry said, "early bird gets the worm", whatever the fuck that was supposed to mean (he got a blowjob out of it, though, so he won't complain)."Because," Harry starts, letting go of Louis's hand. "We're gonna want to go public at some point. And as my manager, you need to like, manage that," He says, using hand motions for extra effects. "We can't go public if I'm still dating Liam.""Right," Zayn says. "I'll go get Liam," Louis takes note of the fact that Liam's already here. He doesn't want to know why. "And we'll talk about it." Zayn turns around, exiting his kitchen in favor of getting Liam."Wake up the Irish one while you're at it!" Louis yells, maybe a bit too loudly for nine am. Zayn makes a sound before he turns the corner and Louis takes that as a yes.

* * *

  
It's difficult, trying to come up with a solution for all of this. And even if they do, they have to actually run it by Harry's entire management team before they went through with it. Louis was pretty sure the team wasn't exactly fond of Louis, seeing as he probably caused damage to Harry's reputation, but you know, shit happens sometimes. You can't blame Louis for the media being stupid fucks and printing false articles about him and Harry. That was their fault, they should like, manage better. Why didn't Zayn just do everything, Zayn was better at managing than the idiots Harry had told Louis about.

"The thing is," Zayn starts, pacing in front of the other four boys on the sofa. "You can't just break up with Liam and then date Louis a month or two later. We already had that huge thing about you and Louis not being a thing and Louis having a boyfriend. It makes both of you look like liars and no one will like the relationship."Louis sighs, leaning into Harry's side. He already  _knew_  all of that, that's why they had gone to Zayn for something besides that. "Exactly. So like, what do we do? I'm not saying we want to be out tomorrow, but like, a few months maybe..." He looks up to Harry for confirmation and the taller boy nods. "Right, so?""Niall?" Liam asks, which okay sure, Niall had a great idea last time, but that great idea has them in this mess now, so, how can he be trusted to not do this again. There might not be much to screw up, but he's Niall, so who knows. "Any ideas, mate?"Niall purses his lips, shrugging his shoulders and focusing on his phone. "That idea was a one time thing, I can't just solve all of your problems for you," He mumbles. Louis rolls his eyes, reaching over Harry and smacking his best friend on the arm. Niall was useless, once again. That's the Niall he knows."C'mon Nialler, I'm sure there's something in there," Louis says, clinging himself back to Harry's side. Niall scoffs, swatting Louis's hand away. "What if we just say Liam and Harry broke up not too long ago, before I came into the picture, and they didn't want anyone to know?" He tries, but he can tell by Zayn's face that it's a shit idea. "Bad idea, okay.""Jesus fucking Christ," Niall groans, throwing his head back in frustration. "Just go and say that Harry and Louis have been seeing each other for a while now. Harry wanted to come out, but Louis wasn't ready for all the attention, so like, him and Liam pretended to date so Harry could come out and Louis wouldn't have to be in the spotlight or whatever.""What the fuck, Niall," Louis says, sitting up straight and leaning forward to look at the blonde lad. "A one time thing, when the hell did you become clever?""Oi!" Niall exclaims. "I've always been clever," He ignores the rest of the conversation after that, focusing back on his phone. Louis stares at him for a couple of more second, then shakes his head and leans back into the position he was in before. Niall has not always been clever, that's Louis. He's been over this before. But fine, he's give it to Niall this time. And the time before that, but who's keeping count, honestly."That's settled, then," Zayn says, clapping his hands together and smiling. Good, Louis was getting tired of sitting in silence while they each came up with terrible ideas on how to fix this. He's decided that he's never going to go into the managing business. He wasn't patient enough to deal with this shit. Zayn was fucking amazing for how he handled these things, really. It was a true talent that Louis would never understand nor posses. He's not sure exactly how much Zayn gets paid, but he's certain that it's probably not enough for all the shit he has to deal with. He applauds Zayn."So Louis," Zayn begins. "I wanna know, is snogging Harry Styles as great as the media makes it seem?" He teases, sitting down next to the older boy."Fucking," Louis swears. He should've expected this. He should've known better than to think they'd let it go that easily. "Sure." He answers with a sigh.If he doesn't give them the reaction they want, then maybe they won't press on it. That's what he did with his sisters and it seemed to work pretty well. Granted, his sisters were years younger than him, but it should work anyways, just because he's Louis and he usually gets what he wants. It was his hidden skill since he was a child and it's been working ever since."Sitting on his lap, too?" Liam adds. Just when he was beginning to like Liam, too. Fucking Liam and Zayn could go fuck themselves. Or each other. Louis doesn't really care, just as long as they  _shut the fuck up_  and forget the other day ever happened. He was drunk, jealous and clueless, they can't really blame him for reacting the way he did. It was their faults, anyways. They should've told him about all of this when he had gotten there. This could've been avoided. So really, he should be teasing the three of them instead. He buries his face in Harry's chest, hoping to hide his blush. Blushing, he was fucking  _blushing_  right now and it was all because of Harry Styles. A little Zayn and Liam too, but mostly Harry."Shut up," He says, but it's muffled from Harry's chest. "I was drunk." That's a valid excuse for his behaviour. Add that with being deceived and he's got no fault put on him.  "Drunk on love?" Liam asks and  _what the fuck,_  he doesn't need Liam to tease him using  _Beyoncé songs._  Liam Payne was a menace. He takes back every kind word he's ever said about him. It wasn't very many, but it's the thought that counts, right?"Shut the fuck up," He repeats, sitting up when he says it so they can hear it clearly. "Fuck you guys.""But isn't that Harry's job now?" Niall speaks up, setting his phone down to join in on the teasing. What the hell, wasn't Niall supposed to be defending him? He didn't know about anything either, he shouldn't be left out of the teasing. This was abuse, verbal abuse. If he were American, he would considering suing them for this. He hates them all. Except Harry. Harry didn't tease him for his mistakes, unlike some people in the room. This is exactly why he was dating Harry and not any of the others. Well like, besides the fact that he didn't like any of the others, but that's not the point right now.

"I could  _gladly_  go into detail on how we spent last night, lads," Harry smirks. "Louis's loud," Is all he gets to say before the other three groan and Louis begins hitting his chest. He takes it back, he hates Harry, too. Harry's a shit and he hates him. 

  
" _Harry,_ " Louis whines, glaring up at his boyfriend. Harry smiles fondly, pressing a kiss to Louis's forehead. That won't make him take it back. He still hates Harry right now, he doesn't deserve to be forgiven. Like, even if he does sweep Louis's hair to the side and pulls him in closer. He won't give in. Nope.

 

Except he does, pecking Harry's lips quickly and giving a lazy grin. Niall rolls his eyes and shoves Harry's shoulder, bumping him into the smaller boy.  


"Awh, how disgusting," He mutters, picking up his phone again when he realizes Louis and Harry have gone back to acting like a couple. First Liam and Zayn, now Louis and Harry. Couples are disgusting.

 

* * *

 

Louis's never been in a management office before. He had assumed it would be something like sitting in the headmaster's office after getting in trouble in class. He was completely wrong. It was entirely different than that, much more nerve wracking. He hadn't expected to be sat in a meeting room on his last day in London, but there he was, sat right beside Harry and Zayn, while Liam was next to Zayn. Lucky Niall got to sit out on this one.

 

He had thought Zayn was intimidating, but the people he was sat in front of now were even worse. The majority of them were staring at Louis, their eyes hard and intense. He felt nervous, being the center of attention, for once. Sure, he enjoyed having the focus on him most of the time, but he can tell that none of the other people in the room, excluding Harry, Zayn and Liam,  felt positively about him. He didn't care how they felt about him, but you know, it'd be great for them to calm the harsh glares.

 

"So, Lewis," The guy sitting at the front of the room says. Will, Louis thinks. That's what Harry had said his name was and he had seen mentions of him online and in fan fiction. But like, this wasn't fan fiction and Will was standing in front of him while his  _boyfriend_  Harry sat to his left. This was real. This was actually happening right now. Fucking Lottie. 

 

"Louis," He corrects, but Will dismisses it and continues speaking. Wow, what the fuck, why was Harry's team so rude. Harry could've warned him about this, like, he was going into this with no preparation. He was going to tell someone to "fuck off" by the end of the meeting, he could sense it. They all just gave off that kind if vibe.

 

"Mr. Malik has discussed with me a coming out plan for you and Mr. Styles," Will continues, his eyes focused down on his iPad. Louis rolls his eyes, earning a heavy glare from one of Harry's publicists. He shoots one back at her and she shakes her head, typing something on her tablet. Its probably about him and his  _rude_  behaviour. He hopes it is, let the world know that Harry Styles's boyfriend doesn't take anyone's shit. Trend it on Twitter if they have to.

 

"Mhm, yes," He mutters, acting as if he was paying attention. He really wasn't, his eyes darting around the room instead. It was a stereotypical meeting room, with a wall of windows looking down at the busy streets of London and a large table with probably too many chairs. He feels like he's in a movie.

 

Harry places a hand on his thigh under the table, smiling reassuringly when Louis meets his gaze. Louis returns the smile, setting his hand on top of Harry's and looking towards the front of the room again before he gets off focus again. He wasn't sure how long they were going to be in there, but it had only been ten minutes in and he was ready to throw himself out of one of the very large windows. Everyone's typing something and it's no doubt about him and Harry. Was this what it would be like, now? Everyone watching his every move? He couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't flip off every single person that made one comment about him. He hopes he makes Harry's PR team miserable.

 

"Louis," Harry says, catching his attention. Louis looks away from the windows, blinking a couple of times when he stares at everyone else in the room. All their eyes were on him, so he could only assume that they had asked him something. Something that he hadn't paid attention to and didn't know how to answer.

 

"I'm sorry, what was that?" He asks, tapping his fingers on the table. A couple of them scoff and another shakes their head as they continue to type. Well  _excuse_  him for being nervous, they weren't the ones being told how  _they_  were supposed to handle  _their_  relationship. He really doesn't understand how Harry's able to handle this, he's about ready to go off on all of them.

 

Will sighs. "As I said, the plan that's been discussed will be taking effect in a month, after Liam's album is debuted," He says in a bored tone.  _You and me both_ , Louis thinks to himself. "Now, for standard procedure, we're going to need you to sign a contract--"

 

"A  _what?_ " Louis interrupts, furrowing his eyebrows. A contract, a  _fucking contract._ Who the hell signs a contract for being in a relationship? Okay, he understands if it were a publicity thing like Liam and Harry, but him and Harry weren't for  _publicity_. He wasn't going to sit here and be told how he can and can't act with Harry, or where they can or can't go. He wasn't ready to have every fucking aspect of his and Harry's relationship controlled. God, they've barely been together a  _week_ , this was ridiculous. 

 

"A contract," Will repeats. "Now, Mr. Tomlinson," He starts again, but Louis clears his throat. 

 

"Are you fucking serious?" He asks, glaring across the table at Will. Harry tries to set a hand on his shoulder to calm him down, but Louis ignores, it, shoving his shoulder away and continuing. "A contract? To be in a relationship with Harry? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, to be quite honest."

 

Harry's team seems stunned, at his words. He's gonna go ahead and assume that this is the first time someone associated with Harry has ever called them out on their bullshit before. Good, he's sure it won't be the last time he does it, if today's meeting is anything to go by. 

 

Zayn's holding back a laugh beside him, trying his hardest to keep a straight face. Liam's hid his face in his hands, but Louis can tell that's smiling as well. Harry seems confused and worried, mostly, but he's re-placed his hand on Louis's thigh and hasn't said anything yet, so Louis continues off on his rant. 

 

"What? Are you going to tell us where we can go on dates? How we need to dress for them?" He questions, his voice mocking. "What's this stupid thing even for?" 

 

Everyone stays silent after he asks the question, not sure if he was being sarcastic again or if it's a genuine question. When he doesn't speak after, Will begins to talk, explaining the situation to Louis. "In a worst case scenario, if you and Mr. Styles were to have a falling out, we wouldn't want to have any private information--"

 

"Private information? So, what you're saying is that, if Harry and I were to break up, I'm going to throw a tantrum and tell the world all of his secrets?" Louis's fuming at this point, his arms crossed and expression full of disbelief. "Who the fuck do you take me for? I refuse to sign that contract."

 

"Louis," Harry begins, but Louis shakes his head.

 

"You don't find this ridiculous?" He asks. "I understand you're their client, but  _I'm_  not. They can't control what I do and I'm not signing anything."

 

"Mr. Tomlinson," One of the publicists says. "It has nothing to do with you as a person, it's just for extra precautions--"

 

"Bullshit!" Louis exclaims, letting out a forced laugh. If he didn't laugh, he was probably going to say things a lot worse than he was right now. "I saw you all typing away, I know none of you like me. I mean, for one I'm not famous, so there goes publicity. Secondly, I don't listen, so there goes you lot telling me what to do. And third, I don't really pay attention to what I say, meaning I could probably say the wrong thing at the wrong time. But regardless, I'm not signing that contract."

 

The room falls silent, Louis's eyes daring anyone to say something back to him. It ends up being Zayn to speak first, having controlled his laughter and amusement. "Louis's right. Harry knows him well enough to know that he wouldn't leak any private information. As they've been speaking for months, Louis would have done it by now given the countless opportunities," It was a lie, it was a boldface lie and the four of them knew it. Louis didn't even know Harry was Harry those months they had been talking, but whatever, if it gets him what he wants, he won't say anything about it. He'll just let Zayn do his business thing.

 

"And if he does, they'd have to run the article through us, anyways," Zayn says, shrugging his shoulders. "There's no need for a contract, honestly."

 

Louis was  _right_ , he was always right. Zayn's just proved his point and okay, he lied a little bit, but it didn't matter. What matters was that he was a step closer to getting his way.

 

"Alright," Will says after a moment of hesitation. "No contract will be given for now. But at any signs of trouble, we will have to take these measures," He says some other things as well, but Louis's stopped paying attention. His lips curl into a smirk, shooting a victorious glance at the rest of Harry's team. Harry squeezes his leg and grins, Zayn and Louis giving each other a subtle high five under the table. He's probably just become Harry's PR team's worst nightmare. He's honored.

 

* * *

* * *

**EPILOGUE**

Harry bit his lip as he sat down in the chair for his interview, sneaking a quick glance at Louis, who was stood behind the cameras smiling. He sends a quick smile and wink to the smaller boy just before someone calls one minute until the interview. The person interviewer Harry sit across from him, giving a warm smile. She's got blonde and and brown eyes, Harry knows her from other interviews he's done. He's glad, it's good to be around someone that he knows has done this well before.

 

"Nice you meet you again, Harry," She says in a rush, knowing they've got less than sixty seconds until the interview begins. He nods and grins, his eyes flickering back over to Louis for a second before focusing on her. The same person from before calls out thirty seconds until the interview and Harry's done this millions of times before, but this one, this one was going to be different. There was more to it than all of his other ones, especially with Louis stood behind the camera sending him weird faces every five seconds. Well, he's done it before, but just the topic that was going to be brought up was nerve wracking.

 

He opens his mouth to say something, but five seconds is being called out, so he closes his mouth and just waits for the cameras to roll and the interview to start. 

 

"Hello, Harry," She greets again once the camera starts rolling, giving another smiles. Harry returns it, giving a small wave as well. "How've you been lately?" 

 

"Been good, tired," He jokes, but there is some truth to it. He'd been in the studio a lot lately, writing more songs and beginning to record for his next album. He feels like he hasn't had time for anything else anymore, which he wouldn't mind so much if Louis didn't live with him. Louis's said countless times that he hadn't minded, he understood that Harry was busy with work and had other things to do, but he still felt bad that Louis was getting such a small percentage of his attention.

 

She laughs lightly and he looks off camera to Louis, who gives a little wave and sticks out his tongue a bit. Harry smiles fondly, returning his attention to the interviewer. "It's a busy life you live, Harry Styles." She tells him. He chuckles and nods, shrugging a bit. 

 

The interview goes on for about ten minutes, the interviewer going through her cards and Harry answering all of them with a charming reply and a smile to match. Louis's continued making strange face for the entire thing, causing Harry to lose focus during a few minutes of it. He's not annoyed, though, because it's Louis and it's hard to be. 

 

"So, I've heard that you've got something important that you wanted to share," She begins, setting the cards down on her lap and leaning forward a bit. He smiles sheepishly, looking down at his hands and messing with one of his fingers. This was it, the moment that he had been getting so worked up over. Honestly, if Louis hadn't been behind the cameras distracting him a little, he doesn't know how he would've made it through these past ten minutes. 

 

"I do, yeah," He says in a quiet tone, glancing up at Louis who gives a thumbs up. "So um, as everyone knows, Louis and I have been together for three years now," He brings a hand up to his mouth and wipes at his lips instinctively, clearing his throat. "And, basically...we're engaged." His eyes are stuck on Louis as he says it and he's sure that a camera has been turned to face the twenty-five year old, who's cheeks were tinted a soft pink. 

 

Three years with Louis. Three entire years filled with laughs, stupid jokes, arguments every once in a while, teasing, and simply loving each other throughout everything. Neither of them had expected it to last so long, especially with the backlash Louis had received at first. It had been negative for him at first, but people had slowly warmed up to it, and soon Louis and Harry were at the top of every couples chart, everyone wanting to know about their relationship. Louis wasn't sure what to do with the sudden attention, but he had gotten used to it after the first year or so. It still shocked him sometimes, but it wasn't too bad for the most part. They had lasted three years so far, so it obviously gotten easier.

 

The interviewing makes soft cooing noises, smiling brightly. "That's so exciting! How long have you two been engaged? Who popped the question?" She asks and it feels like she's asking him a million questions.

 

"About three weeks, actually. And I proposed. He thought he'd beat me to it, but I proved him wrong," He tells her, winking in Louis's direction and laughing when the older lad flips him off. 

 

"What's it been like? Being with Louis for so long. You two are all the media's been talking about since you went public three years ago."

 

"Yeah," He starts. "It's been crazy, all of the attention, but Louis gets it and he understands that's it apart of my job, so I'm grateful for that. He's great, really. Even if he doesn't clean up after himself," He grins cheekily as Louis hides his face in his hands. "But honestly, Louis's probably one of the best things that's happened to me since winning X-Factor. I couldn't ask for someone better to spend my life with," He blows a kiss at Louis, who's still covering his face, probably to avoid being seen blushing on camera.

 

"That's so sweet, Harry," The interviewer gushes. "Now, we all know when you two got together, that's been everywhere. But," Harry knows it's coming, he's been waiting for this since after he announced the proposal. "How was it that you two met?"

 

He chuckles, shaking his head fondly. He licks his lips, glancing to Louis before beginning to speak. "Well um, we were both on a site called Tumblr..."

 

(Louis and Harry get married the next year in the late fall) 

 

(It snows on the day of their wedding)

 

(They adopt their first daughter, Darcy, two years later)

 

(Harry makes two more albums after before focusing on his songwriting career and family)

 

(They're very in love)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> find me on [tumblr!!!!](donnyslouis.tumblr.com)


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